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Rangefinder
Magazine Rƒ Cookbook by Robert Neubert
“ I called the Tibetan Cultural Center in Moscow and suggested that I do a portrait,” Nacke recalls. “They agreed because I said the image would be distributed by my New York City agent, Woodfin Camp & Associates, to newsmagazines and other publications throughout the world.” Nacke and an assistant arrived at a designated room in the center more than an hour beforehand to prepare. The assistant stood in for Polaroid portraits, since there would be no time to bracket or do a snip test (analyzing images from the first few frames in a lightbox). They set up a gray seamless backdrop behind where the Dalai Lama would stand, and two Photoflex LiteDome softboxes with Norman heads to provide lighting on the Tibetan spiritual leader. Nacke pushed his Fujichrome Velvia to E.I. 64, and set the Nikkor 80–200mm f/2.8 zoom lens at 100mm for 1/200 of a second at f/11. “ I knew exactly what kind of pose I wanted going in,” Nacke remembers. “The advance planning was critical, since you don’t get a second chance at a photograph like this.” When the Dalai Lama finished a speech and was escorted into the room, Nacke made the images in the 15 minutes he’d been allotted, with the assistant handing him fresh cameras as he burned through as many rolls of film as time allowed. Although that wasn’t much time for a formal portrait, it sure beat the four minutes and 20 seconds he’d been granted to make a full-page photograph of Zhirinovsky for Vanity Fair magazine. The memorable Dalai Lama image has appeared in scores of publications around the world, and even shows up in a major encyclopedia. It’s featured prominently on Nacke’s website (www.chucknacke.com), which showcases his work, plus that of other photographers in a part of the site called The Zine. Woodfin Camp still represents Nacke’s work and licenses his images for publication. Robert Neubert runs a communication consulting practice in Monterey, California. He has contributed to publications ranging from Rolling Stone to Sports Illustrated, and had articles published on photographers such as Brett Weston. INGREDIENTS |
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Chuck Nacke was based in Moscow in the mid-1990s when
he heard the Dalai Lama was coming to town. He had earned an international
reputation covering what he termed the “Stan Wars,” civil
conflicts in former states of the Soviet Union such as Afghanistan, Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kurdistan. He had made memorable portraits
of Russian leaders such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, and Vladimir
Zhirinovsky, as well as other world leaders visiting Moscow.