"Three Seconds To Capture A Soul"
A chat with photographer Rose Hartman
Interviewed and photographed by Marsin www.marsindigital.com, Rose Hartman in a Marabou jacket by Adrienne Landau. New York City.
What was your first ever photo gig?
I was invited to photograph the wedding of Joan Hemingway in the beautiful Sun Valley, Idaho. Fifteen images of the wedding were published in The Daily News Record, as well as the cover. The cover got people interested in my photography. I enjoyed being surrounded by the fashionably fabulous crowd and wanted to continue capturing beauty in a photograph.
Did you study photography in college?
I attended The City College of the City University of New York and majored in English Literature. I became a teacher but was always fascinated by fashion, models, and the behind the scenes of a runway show fiasco. Following my passion, led to special invitations from the owners of Studio 54. I would go there to photograph models and celebrities, and hide my camera behind the speakers so I could enjoy the night and dance. Thus, resulting in one of my favorite photographs of Bianca Jagger on a white horse.
What does the new book, Incomparable Women of Style, feature?
The book is divided in to different parts, including jet set ,designers, models and fashionistas. Featuring photographs I have taken since the beginning of my photography career. The book took about two years to complete, especially since I am working with an international publisher. The images were selected with the help of photographers Andrea Blanch and Linda Troeller, Manuel Santelices, a fashion journalist, Carole Alter, a painter.
Featuring women that present themselves with style and personal style has nothing to do with money but presentation. The book includes texts by Anthony Haden-Guest, Alistair O’Neill as well as myself.
How would you like to be recognized, acknowledged and seen as?
Someone that captured the essence of a stylish woman.
Do you ever feel like putting your camera to rest?
It is resting right now.
What type of music do you enjoy listening to?
Jazz and Brazilian music.
What advice do you have for emerging photographers?
Be persistent, make contacts with event promoters, get positive references, find a subject that you are passionate about, and shoot, shoot, shoot!!!
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Biography: Photographer Rose Hartman has been chronicling iconic moments in fashion, style, and culture of the most legendary settings of New York nightlife, fashion shows, openings and clubs. From Studio 54 to the Mudd Club to Chelsea art galleries today. Hartman's career has yielded a treasure trove of material that portrays incomparable women of high fashion, street style, and New York City society through the eye of a social documentarian.
Her arresting pictures, that manage to create the illusion of intimacy in the most public circumstances, have been published in Vogue, Stern, Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Panorama, the NY Times, New York, Stern, Amici, Art News, Allure, Art & Auction, Art & Antiques, Quest, Life, Amica, Cosas, Marie Clair, Rolling Stone, Elle, Forbes, W, Der Spiegel, American Photo, etc.
Her first book, BIRDS OF PARADISE (Delacorte Press, 1980) offered a private and extraordinary look into the world of fashion and its personalities, from a visit to Ralph Lauren’s studio to the glamorous and intimate fashion shows that Halston used to organize at his atelier at the Olympic Tower. ACC, a London-based publishing group, published her second book, "INCOMPARABLE WOMEN of STYLE" in the fall of 2012.
Exhibitions: Hartman's images have been widely exhibited in some of the most prestigious museums and galleries in the United States, including the Museum of the City of N.Y., Pucci Gallery, Dia, Experience Music Project, Sorokko Gallery, the Whitney Museum, Dean Project, and the Library of Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, and Gallery des Artistes (Moscow). Recently the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York has acquired her extensive archives, a photo treasure that, at least in part, will be exhibited through Feb. 2, 2012. Also, exclusive restaurant The Lion has acquired and is currently showing four of her most famous images, including a pensive and seductive Mick Jagger, and Andy Warhol and Jerry Hall holding a lively conversation in Studio 54. Hartman's photos were shown in a group show, "Social History:The Jet Set" at Staley-Wise, a fine art fashion photography gallery from September 9-October 10, 2011.
“Incomparable Women of Style.” By Rose Hartman. With texts by Anthony Haden-Guest, Rose Hartman and Alistair O’Neill. 163 pp.,
132 color illustrations. ACC Editions. $49.50. Available in major bookstores and via sales@antiquecc.com
