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Rangefinder
Magazine Architects of Peace by Peter Skinner In an age when so much attention is focused on the tensions and tragedy of the world around us, it is heartening and enlightening when a brilliant photographer is inspired to create a book containing portraits of—and essays by—great people who have a vision of hope. Such is Michael Collopy’s latest book, the aptly titled Architects of Peace.
The book is the culmination of a three-and-a-half year odyssey, which started in 1996, involved an extraordinary amount of planning and overtures to the right people, an estimated 250,000 miles of air travel, as Collopy crisscrossed the nation to meet and photograph the globe-trotting personages who had agreed to participate, and an exhaustive editing process to ensure that the portraits fit the mood and tone of the accompanying essays. The catalyst to this huge undertaking were the words, which were delivered to an eminent gathering in San Francisco in 1996 of an outstanding woman—one of the essayists. At that time, in her speech to the State of the World Forum, Children’s Defense Fund president Marian Wright Edelman called upon the world’s leaders to close the widening gap between humanity’s promise and its lagging performance. As Collopy writes in the introduction to the book, Edelman was profound in her statement. “We are… living at an incredible moral moment in history,” she said. “Few human beings are blessed to anticipate or experience the beginning of a new century and millennium. How will we say thanks for the life, earth, nations, and children God has entrusted to our care? What legacies, principles, values and deeds will we stand for and send to the future through our children to their children and to a spiritually confused, balkanized, and violent world desperately hungering for moral leadership and community?”
Inspired by her challenge, Collopy set out to bring 75 spiritual leaders, activists, entertainers, scientists and writers together in one book and through their portraits and personal words convey how diversity of culture and opinion can be united through a central goal of peace. The author has lofty and admirable aspirations for his book. “The peace process needs to be nurtured and revered. I hope this book will serve to preserve the images and visions of these extraordinary people , who have sacrificed so much of themselves for the sake of others and for the sake of peace itself. I found extraordinary common threads of self-sacrifice and forgiveness in many of these stories,” he said.
The diversity of contributors is amazing and impressive, starting with the foreword by eminent journalist Walter Cronkite, identified in polls as the most trusted man in America. And each of the essayists bares their soul in espousing their own hopes, aspirations and views on what needs to be, or should be, done to make this world a better place. And they are not unfounded, abstract ideas opined by the naïve or uninitiated. Many of them have been at the heated center of bitter political battle over many years but have unwaveringly stayed the course of their convictions. Their prose reveals their experiences and their visions of the future—optimistic but realistic. Their visions and philosophy are not clouded by illusion, nor do they view the human condition through rose-tinged lenses. True, they are visionaries—but they are also pragmatists.
Architects of Peace couples stunning, original tri-tone portraits of the peacemakers with their own words on peace, many written especially for the book. The group of essayists is remarkable in itself, ranging from eminent political figures such as Nelson Mandela and César Chavez to artists such as Maya Lin and Alice Walker to lesser-known peacemakers like Bosnian diarist Nadja Halilbegovich and Oakland schoolteacher Ida Jackson. Notable is the fact that 16 Nobel Peace Prize laureates are among the contributors including Oscar Arias Sanchez, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Henry Kissinger, Nelson Mandela, Linus Pauling, Shimon Peres, Mother Teresa and Desmond Tutu. These are people who really do care. Who could question the humanitarian motivation of people such as Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela or the Dalai Lama? Or the urgings for handgun control by Sarah and James Brady? Or the peace activism and human rights efforts of President Jimmy Carter? The words and vision of such extraordinary people are hopeful, thought provoking and encouraging. And this book in its entirety is moving testament to humanity’s diversity and its potential, demonstrating what the world’s cultures can and must achieve in order to survive and prosper in the face of an uncertain future.
Connoisseurs of fine portraiture will be delighted by Collopy’s images which, in the tradition of great work, portray the essence of each subject as much as their words reveal the depth and strength of their convictions, not that the caliber of Collopy’s work should come as a surprise. He has gained recognition for his commissioned portraits of hundreds of public figures and his portfolio ranges from Ella Fitzgerald, Mick Jagger and Bill Cosby to B.B. King and Luciano Pavarotti. Collopy’s photographs have been published in numerous books, magazines and newspapers, as well as on many CD covers. Given the magnitude of Architects of Peace, an obvious question is one of access and logistics. How did he get so many luminaries—many of whom are notoriously camera shy—to cooperate, even for such a worthy goal? In some cases, as in photographing President Mikhail Gorbachev, luck played its role. As Collopy explained: “President Gorbachev is one of those rare individuals who changes a room when he enters it. I first met him when I was scheduled to do a portrait of him at the opening of the Gorbachev Foundation in San Francisco. I had set up my equipment upstairs at their new headquarters, a small house near the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. Gorbachev was scheduled to enter the house briefly and then give the keynote speech outside. By the time he arrived with his wife, Raisa, the tiny first floor was completely filled. I sensed that the overflowing crowd made him uncomfortable and that my hopes of photographing him were fading fast.
“ As I climbed the stairs to regroup with my publicist, I felt someone tug on my shoulder. It was Gorbachev, asking me to show him around the second floor. Of course, I immediately brought him to the room with my equipment. He walked into the room, smiled, and walked out. I learned later that being photographed for him was like going to the dentist. “ Through their interpreter, I pleaded my case with Raisa, who convinced him to sit for me. Once he was in the chair, she teased him over my shoulder, prodding him to say ‘cheese,’ one of the few words I think she knew in English. Thanks to Raisa I was able to photograph President Gorbachev several times over the next five years. Her passing was a tremendous blow to everyone who had the great pleasure of being in her company,” said Collopy. How Michael Collopy was able to obtain the cooperation of so many notable people is testimony to his own considerable diplomatic skills and perseverance. He, however, says modestly that it was a series of good breaks and networking which opened the doors to his successful career. The foundation for that was a long working association with Frank Sinatra. Over the course of about 10 years, Collopy photographed Sinatra many times and that in turn laid the cornerstones of a network comprising numerous celebrities and world leaders. Added to that was his hugely successful and acclaimed project with Mother Teresa. So when the seeds of Architects of Peace began to germinate in Collopy’s mind’s eye, he had the credentials to initiate communications with potential essayists or their agents.
Gaining access to some of his subjects was relatively easy—his introductory letter and proposal highlighted the potentially broad scope of the educational impact, something that appealed to many. Getting through the layers of managers who sheltered people such as Steven Spielberg and Robert Redford from the daily deluge of “offers and proposals too good to miss” depended on the interest triggered by Collopy’s concept. That the concept did strike a chord is evident: both celebrities not only participated but were extraordinarily generous with their time for the portrait sessions and in writing their essays, as was Jimmy Carter. “These three men don’t have speech writers and they spent a lot of time working on their essays to make sure their words were eloquent and just right for the topic,” said Collopy. The coordination and logistics were, at times, complex. Often his subjects would be flying into places such as New York on the same day but it was not possible to organize group sessions, or even photograph more than one person on the same day. That involved flying repeatedly across the country. Because of budget constraints, Collopy did not take an assistant but he did pack a large amount of equipment. His camera outfit was Hasselblad, and he took two Speedotron light packs, 2400ws and 1200ws—chosen for their durability. His film of choice was Kodak T-Max 100. On occasion, an environmental background worked for the subject but Collopy did not rely on such fortuitous circumstances, lugging a screen with him to ensure a consistent backdrop.
He kept his lighting patterns relatively simple, using two lights for most portraits with a soft box on the main light. On occasion, such as when he photographed Jean-Michel Cousteau at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, he used a third light and dragged the shutter to expose for the dim ambient light in one of the background tanks. Simplicity of lighting and standardizing his basic setup gave Collopy the flexibility to do what all great portraitists do—communicate with the subject during the shoot, making sure he was able to focus on the person and was not attending to complex lighting arrangements. The revealing portraits are testimony to the success of that approach. Fortunately, all of Collopy’s travel for this project, even as grueling as it was, was within the U.S. One exception, and these were done prior, were the images of Mother Teresa, made in Calcutta during the month of May, when the annual monsoon inundates the region and humidity is constantly close to 100 percent. These enervating climatic conditions contributed to one nerve-wracking incident prior to the portrait session—because of the humidity, the lens fogged up. And there was little to be done in Mother Teresa’s non-air-conditioned home. However, as if by divine intervention—and given the subject, who is going to discount that possibility?—when Mother Teresa walked “onto the set” the moisture-laden lens completely cleared up.
Such good fortune was perhaps a prophecy of what was to come after Collopy and Mother Teresa finalized their project—Works of Love Are Works of Peace: Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the Missionaries of Charity. Undeniably, Mother Teresa would be proud of her colleague’s latest contribution to visions for a better world. One hopes that Architects of Peace does attain the goals its principals strived for, beyond being a magnificent book. Certainly it has been well received. The original print run of 35,000-plus hard cover and limited edition copies has been augmented by a more recent printing of approximately 10,000 soft cover books. It is a beautiful and inspiring work—both for its crafted images and its impressive collection of essays written by some of the world’s greatest minds.
And what does the future hold for Michael Collopy, in addition to the flow of work through his San Francisco studio? Already started is a peace study program—with credit—at Stanford University and this could be the forerunner of an educational program with international scope. Stay tuned. In the mean time, to see his work, visit his web site: [www.collopyphoto.com]. More Information
Captions: 1. Dr. Maya Angelou is an acclaimed poet, historian, author, actress, playwright, civil rights activist, director and producer. Beginning her career in dance and drama, she has since worked for civil rights in the U.S in the 1960’s, traveled the globe teaching and editing for English language publications, received an Emmy nomination for her role in the miniseries “The Roots,” and written ten best selling books, which have earned her Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award nominations. Presently, Angelou teaches at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. 2. Sixty days after becoming White House press secretary in 1981, James Brady was shot during an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. Since leaving the White House, he has worked to prevent handgun violence with his wife Sarah, chair of Handgun Control, Inc., the nation’s largest citizens’ gun control lobbying organization. In 1993 President Clinton signed the “Brady Bill,” a law which has prevented hundreds of thousands of previously convicted felons from purchasing guns. 3. Elie Wiesel, was only 16 when his entire family was taken from their home in Sighet, Romania, to the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. As one of three holocaust survivors in his family, Wiesel has devoted his life to teaching about the Holocaust and writing for newspapers in France, Israel and the United States. As well, he is an Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Humanities at Boston University, a prolific author, and a recipient of many awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal, the French Legion of Honor and the 1986 Noble Peace Prize. 4. Carlos Santana is a pioneer in synthesizing musical styles from different cultures. Born in the village of Autlan, Mexico, Santana and his family eventually settled in San Francisco, where the Santana Blues Band burst onto the West Coast scene in the 1960s. Thirty years later—with more than 50 million records sold, and a record-tying nine Grammy awards in 1999, he continues to blend Afro-Cuban rhythms, American blues and his singular guitar style to capture a diverse international audience. 5. Dr. C. Everett Koop, born in Brooklyn in 1916, enjoyed a long career as a leading pediatric surgeon at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia and as a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania from 1948–1981. In 1981, Koop was appointed Surgeon General of the United States, a position in which he became a strong voice on the AIDS crisis and the perils of smoking. He is now Elizabeth DeCamp McIerny Professor at Dartmouth College. 6. Steven Spielberg, director of award winning films such as Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan, is not only the largest-grossing director in history but he is also the man who is responsible for ushering in the modern blockbuster era. Since the making of Schindler’s List, Spielberg has devoted all of his earnings from the film to the Survivor’s of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, which has documented more than 100,000 hours of Holocaust survivors’ testimonies, as well as contributing to the Righteous Persons Foundation, which grants money to various projects affecting modern Jewish life. 7. Center: Jean-Michel Cousteau, the eldest son of late ocean explorer Jacques Costeau, is a leading defender of marine environments. Trained at the Paris School of Architecture, Cousteau is an architect whose projects include artificial floating islands, schools and an advanced marine studies center. He now guides the Ocean Future Society, a non-profit organization in Santa Barbara, California. 8. Hasfat Abiola was born and raised in Lagos, she is the daughter of Moshood and Kudirat Abiola, two monumental figures in the democratic political climate of Lagos. She has founded and continues to run the Kudirat Initiative for Nigerian Democracy (KIND), which is dedicated to promoting democracy and strengthening civil society in Africa. Hasfat Abiola attended Phillips Academy and Harvard University. 9. A pioneer in environmental law, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. serves as chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper Organization and as a senior attorney for the National Resources Defense Council. He is also a clinical professor and supervising attorney at the Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace University School of Law in New York. An avid whitewater paddler, he has led first descents on remote rivers in Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela. Freelance writer/photographer and author Peter Skinner, who is based in Anacortes, Washington has more than 22 years experience in the photo industry in public relations, media liaison, cor-porate communications and workshop production and coordination. His magazine articles and photography have been published internationally and he has co-authored or edited numerous publications and books including the 5th and 6th editions of the authoritative ASMP Professional Business Practices in Photography (Allworth Press). |
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In 1996, Collopy, an acclaimed portrait photographer
based in San Francisco, released Works of Love Are Works of Peace, produced
with the cooperation of Mother Teresa. Now he has followed up with a
unique collection of essays by 75 of the world’s great peacemakers,
superbly complemented by his compelling portraits.
