Nothing like a little pressure here. This was to be the fourth and final assignment of a very long day, already into the 8th hour by the time I arrived at his apartment in the evening. The subject lived in a 2000 square bart loft on Canal Street and Broadway. Thank goodness for my press pass, which allows parking in truck zones for a limited period of time.
I only had to walk 2 blocks to his apartment. My camera bag and lights were on wheels.
My first hint that things weren't going to be a picnic was when I arrived at his building. It was a walkup. Daniel Shiffman, a young and strong 25 year old offered to help me carry my bags, but I said: "Nah, I can make it, how far we goin'?"
To disguise my huffing and puffing when we reached the summit (third floor), I meandered around the huge room evaluating my options. Immediately I saw that the picture they wanted was a virtual impossibility; clearly Mr Shiffman hadn't been interviewed by the writer in this space; the four computer stations (the other 3 of which belonged to his roommates) were situated in the four corners of an immense room, facing outward toward the corners.
Although I could visualize the ideal picture...18 mm. or 14 mm. wide shot, ...subject surrounded by computers, playing games on all 8 at once, his face lit with blue/orange lights, grinning like the Cheshire cat... Trust me, this was not going to happen without my dismantling their operating systems.
In addition, I had to set up some kind of lighting for better tonal range than the ambient light afforded; that meant finding an electrical outlet that wouldn't blow their fuses or toast their toys. These guys were really wired!
Daniel logged on to the internet world of gaming and showed me his genius. His face was a virtual cybergeological map of kid- like emotions, ranging from joy at winning to mock frustration at cyberdying.
I photographed him wide, through a morass of snaking computer cords, and with his face so close to the monitor, I knew he was seeing nothing but a blur.
I also knew these pictures were pretty boring, and certainly not cover material.
The assignment specs were pretty clear about photographing only the subject. The presence of Daniel's roommmates made for some awkwardness; I couldn't very well ask them to leave the room, and they weren't offering.
photo illustration:
the New YorkTimes used the third frame above for their Circuits cover
So...I guess halfway into my third roll of film, I asked Daniel to turn toward me and said: "This has been just great, we're almost finished." He did a thumbs up. Click. "That was great, just great."
He made a funny face. "Now we're cookin,'" I said.
He threw back his head, adjusted his glasses, started gesturing and being silly.
Daniel Shiffman finally showed me who he was, a young guy with an obsession for computer games, a self proclaimed geek, yet not geeky, with a sense of humor that became clearly evident as he let down his guard.
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He gave me exactly what I needed, a portrait/personality picture to illustrate a story about an inanimate protatonist, yet another putty colored box... and its protege. Was it cover material? Was it brilliant? Perhaps not, but it ran as the lead story in Circuits last Thursday, and was the cover inset photograph to a really nice illustration. A second wide shot ran inside. I received a call from an editor the day before the section ran, who liked the picture and the outtakes even better, which ran with the wire service package. |
Daniel Shiffman, a 25 year old computer programmer meets other internet game enthusiasts from around the world in on-line arenas, where he plays games like "Myth: The Fallen Lords." © 1998 Susan B. Markisz for The New York Times. |
The comment the editor made was that the personality of the subject really drove home the story, which was that computer games are fun.
Susan B. Markisz
November 1, 1998