I first met Sylvester when he was in Junior high school. He was friends with my cousins. He was very mature for his age and loved movies.
When I started Dlonzo Modeling Troupe, Sylvester became my DJ since he was good with electronics and was also in the school band. I had never seen Sylvester as a model (Although he was the groom in a wedding sequence in my first major fashion show, as an inside joke. He actually liked the model a lot.) I had hoped they would have gotten together. (That’s another story. LOL)
Sylvester and I hung out a lot until I got him his first job at Frenchy’s. It was a sandwich shop near the lakefront in New Orleans. After high school Sylvester joined the military and I never heard from him until 1992. He was living in Seattle. He started telling me about the film festival and the celebrities he was meeting. I had always wanted to make a movie and as a kid the family and cousins were always in front of my camera. Even when they didn’t want to be.
I was good with people and knew if I made it to Seattle something might happen. Since the modeling in New Orleans was coming to an end. (I had gone through some difficult times and decided I’d leave it alone.)
In 1993 I had decided to go to Seattle and this was sort of the beginning of me getting back into the photography. The Seattle International Film Festival had set up interviews with the celebrities and one of the people I had met was a writer, I was brought in as the photographer to take pictures to go along with the story. All thanks to Sylvester.
When I returned to New Orleans, Sylvester had planned to come a few weeks later. One of my cousins and his friend was getting married. It would be Sylvester’s first trip back to New Orleans since he had left in 1984.
I had taken a job working for a friend and I had access to his home. Some how we must have talked about doing some photos. I had arranged for Sylvester to come to the house with me and we ended up doing a photo shoot. After all those years of producing fashion shows, now when I was no longer a part of the scene I would discover that Sylvester was a natural in front of the camera. Perhaps him moving to Seattle opened his mind. Sometimes all it takes is for us to walk out of our own backyard to discover our potential.
Everyone I knew was very comfortable posing for me and I would never ask anyone to do something that I wouldn’t have done as long as I looked good.
The next year when I returned to Seattle Sylvester really surprised me. I came up with the idea which was inspired by a photograph in Madonna’s Sex book. The theme of the Seattle International Film Festival was See what the world is coming to… Sylvester had purchased a pair of the boxer briefs which had the titled across the butt. I was not going to turn down a chance to create some art with my best friend.
Sylvester like myself always wanted to do cinematography. I did both so I had agreed when we would make a film we’d share the job. After seeing the film Bad Boy Bubby, we knew it was actually possible to have several people film a project.
http://dlonzo-OpenYourMind.blogspot.com
Thanks for stopping by; and keep an open mind. Let the ART flow.
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