Life through the lens
What do Bill Clinton, Geronimo’s granddaughter and a local dance company have in common? They’ve all been photographed by Peter Figetakis
Not so many years ago magazines, newspaper and books used only professionally sourced images all of which were created by talented men and women blessed with a mix of cunning, determination, flair, and a great eye for a story. They didn’t just ‘take’ photographs they ‘made’ them.
Relatively simple equipment was the norm, but considerable technical skills were also needed to make the equipment work in their favour. It was also an expensive profession. Cameras didn’t come cheap and the 4×5 sheet film they used cost so much that the luxury of clicking off dozens of pictures wasn’t an option. All a far cry from now when photographers with their slick digital cameras seem to work solely for impact as they capture an instantly eye-catching image. In the rush to be a ‘Shooter’ rather than a seasoned pro-photographer, the nuances of subtle lighting and composition are often forgotten.
One such ‘maker’ of photographs is Peter Figetakis who, over the past couple of decades, has trapped many a fleeting prey in his little box, initially in photographs and later in film. In his photographs he has perfected the ability to bathe his images in wonderful light, capturing a ‘real’ moment of his subjects’ lives. Such is his skill that it comes as no surprise that many of his subjects are high on the list of the rich and famous. Bill Clinton, John Lennon and Robert De Niro are just a few of those who have posed for Peter.
Peter’s skill behind the lens has been a wonderful coup for Dance Cyprus, the exciting new local dance company. Peter, whose wife is from Nicosia, was recently in Cyprus to visit family and friends, one of whom invited Peter to become the official photographer at the company’s premiere in Nicosia.
Born in Greece but moving to America when he was six, Peter had a brutal upbringing in the appropriately named Hell’s Kitchen the notorious gangster-grooming neighbourhood of New York. Here he learned how to survive the ever-present battles between the Irish and Italian communities. At 12 he was employed after school at T&T (Tony and Tony) a wholesale butchery, and this initiation into the workplace brought him into direct contact with the ‘Sopranos’ of the fifties. At around the same time he got his hands on his first camera, a 1947 Leica.
It was whilst walking through a burnt out building in the Bronx that Peter came across a half-destroyed copy of the classic photographic book entitled Family of Men. Now long out of print, this book became his ‘bible’ providing the necessary stimulation to learn about photography. Through trial and error, he started to ‘make’ photographs. After graduating from high school, the young teenager was encouraged to apply for a photographic scholarship from the Pratt Institute. Within just a few months he became disenchanted with the foundation course.
“I had already covered most of the work given to us during that first term so there were little or no stimuli for me. I asked to leave and go follow my own path. Instead, the tutors suggested I be farmed out to a professional studio to work and gain direct hands-on experience, something I happily agreed to. And off I went as a more than willing apprentice,” he said.
Few aspiring students of photography will have enjoyed such a lucky break as Peter did, that sunny spring day when he walked into the studio of Richard Avendon and the start of an apprenticeship to one of the greats in fashion photography. “At first I was pretty low down the pecking order, being something like the great man’s sixth assistant. A tea boy, basically. But slowly I started to watch, look and learn, and was able to rise up through the ranks of assistants.”
The fashion world’s guru Irving Penn was also a mentor. There then followed a swift rise in the fashion world with Peter covering shoots for Vogue magazine. Such assignments would have marked the zenith of any fashion photographer’s career, but in New York City he also became known as a celebrity ‘snapper’ at a time when the title celebrity really meant something.
He covered Led Zeppelin in concert at Madison Square Gardens and worked on the stills photography of the first Rocky movie. There then followed a star-studded series of images. He became friendly with Robert De Niro when both were working on the movie Goodfellows. Al Pacino was another friend he made via his photographic talents. Bono, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore and the great Joe Cocker were just some of the other stars who became more than just passing posed images for Peter.
Jack Lemmon was a “father figure” and the two men would take tea together in New York’s famous Russian Tea Rooms. A relationship was also forged with John Lennon and he spent time in the ‘white’ room of Lennon’s Dakota apartment talking politics and fishing.
By the late 1980s, Peter had sufficient funds to take a year off from the fashion/celeb circuit to travel to Arizona to take on another challenge – the filming of a gritty documentary based on the Apache leader, Geronimo, and the genocide of the indigenous Indian tribes at the hands of the white man. Key to the project’s success would be his ability to be accepted by the Apache tribe on the Saint Carlos reservation and gain their trust.
“They were justifiably suspicious of my motives, knowing full well I was there to search for and interview Geronimo’s granddaughter, a woman others had long tried to find but never succeeded,” he said.
He spent one year living with the Apaches and being initiated into their tribe was a huge spiritual turning point in Peter’s life.
“For three days I went through ‘brave’ initiations including smoking a peace pie which was packed with hallucinogenic dried mushrooms, I then survived the searing hot sweat tents. Afterwards I was taken to the top of a high cliff face there, naked except for a loin cloth. I stood at the very edge with toes curling round the rock. Both arms were stretched out, in one was placed an eagle feather and in the other a tree branch. I stayed there for 24 hours surviving the searing daytime heat and freezing temperatures at night.
“I was then given the all-important introduction to Isla the granddaughter and remained in contact with her until her death a few years later. My time with the Apaches was indeed life changing and one that few white men have ever experienced. The honour of being given the title ‘Apache blood brother’ is something I am very proud off.”
No doubt this test of endurance was something that came in useful when on his return to the white man’s world he was asked to be the official photographer at the presidential inauguration of Bill Clinton.
From Vogue models to Hollywood stars, from Native Americans to US presidents, Peter has worked with them all. It’s a very long way indeed from the violence of Hell’s Kitchen and its seedy meat factories.
Dancecyprus is a group of internationally acclaimed dancers, choreographers and musicians who aim to create a permanent professional dance company in Cyprus.
Dancecyprus burst onto the scene last December with two ballets, A Pair of Winds Please? and Sirens. Their most recent performance was in June when they performed White Magic, a joint performance of a new work by choreographer Antonio Colandrea and the renowned concert pianist Martino Tirimo.
www.dancecyprus.org
