Let's get lost...

In 1987, I started a year working as 2nd assistant for fashion photographer Bruce Weber.  I was 28 years old.  My job consisted of unloading and loading his cameras as fast as I could (in the days before digital photography).  It was a busy year of fashion shoots for Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren, among other clients.  Some in the studio in NYC and some on location in London and Paris.  At the beginning of my "term of service",  Bruce was finishing up a film about jazz musician Chet Baker - taking us from New York to Santa Monica to Oklahoma to the south of France.  It was a great (and sad) experience getting the chance to meet and work with Chet Baker - especially the studio recording sessions for the film soundtrack.  He was a brilliant musician who unfortunately was also a heroin addict for most of his adult life.  During the filming, Chet was rather uncooperative until he got his daily fix - whether it be methadone or heroin...and then barely functional once he got it.  But once he was "in the zone", his musical performances were always perfect.  Chet died less than a year later from a fall from a second story hotel window in Amsterdam.  Heroin and cocaine were found in his room (and an autopsy revealed both drugs in his body).  He was 58 years old.