It was with great sadness that I learned of the passing of one of the artistic giants of the 20th century - Marcel Marceau...
45 Seconds - That was how long I got to photograph the legendry French mine artist Marcel Marceau in the late 1980’s. For Marceau I am sure it was routine. For me the experience was anything but. Somehow Tim Dumas, a writer I worked with in Connecticut, created the opportunity to interview Marcel Marceau. In addition to pushing for decent one-on-one interview time, Tim arranged for me to take photos for the interview package. In the end the arrangement was that I would meet Marcel backstage at the start of the intermission period during a live performance in New York.
I was a very, very young photographer and nervous as hell at the prospect. So, I was a bit of an anxious wreck as I watched the first part of the show from the rear of the theatre. Marcel Marceau’s handlers then escorted me to the backstage area to wait for the intermission. The theatre management, Marceau’s people and Tim were all pounding instructions at me: I had to be fast - I had to know what I wanted - I could not waste the famed artist’s time – he only had a short moment before heading down to his dressing room etc, etc. By this time I was really nervous. I had way too much gear for this mission. In addition to my bulging camera bag, I had two lights, stands and a tripod, all of which I somehow had carried to the dark backstage area. I was going over in my head what I was going to say, but really had no artistic plan for what kind of photos I was hoping to get.
The curtain went down on the stage - Intermission – I was quickly ushered onto the stage. I made the snap decision to dump almost all my gear: all I had was one camera, two lenses and extra black and white film in my pocket. No flash. I was introduced to Marcel Marceau in the middle of the dark stage. He was warm, friendly and very thin. The only lights were the dim rear stage lights. The main front lights were turned off for the intermission. He walked over to a rear pool of light – but it was still very dark. I followed him and decided to use a wide-angle lens on my Pentax. He turned, donned his hat, smiled, and asked if I was ready – all I could do was nod; yes! Right then he became “Bip” in front of me. Bip is the clown-harlequin character he invented in 1949. I quickly raised the camera and started shooting. Marceau went through an ever changing collidescope of sudden facial and body expressions. All the famous expressions – “Youth, Maturity, Old Age, and Death” were presented just for me, in silence and near total darkness. In the end Marcel did all the work. I just stood there, two feet away as I shot 36 frames in less than a minute. Then it was over - Marceau, still in character, bowed for me, smiled, shook my hand and was gone - all without uttering a single word. He didn’t have to say anything. The contact sheet from that experience is still my favorite – more so as a great personal photographic memory rather than any end printed result.
Max
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