Monday Mycology Madness
Monday, March 12th, 2012This past weekend I had the pleasure of photographing Mycologist/Author David Fischer. I met David for the first time around 15 years ago or so. So this past Thursday I was asked to pick him up from the Rensselaer Amtrak station and when I did we got to talking about his work and my work which made me think of this great image I wanted to make of him. He has spent the past few decades searching for and studying mushrooms in the Northeast. Along with that he’s also put out two books on the subject of mushrooms of North America.
What was great about this shoot was the fact that we were in the woods down the road from my house and we couldn’t stop cracking jokes about the classic movie “Deliverance”. After about 15 mins of us doing this while hunting down mushrooms and setting up, we heard some voices which of course made us laugh even more and start spouting out quotes from the movie. This went on up until I saw one of these guys carrying a shovel through the woods without a body being dragged behind him. That made me believe he was looking to make someone into a cadaver. No, no I kid, I kid. But seriously there was some kids trolling around with a shovel, which was less threatening to me than had he had a banjo in hand. Turns out they were building a tree house just about 100 feet from where we were shooting.
David was great to shoot with because he has such a unique personality. He could joke about anything and everything and didn’t take himself too seriously, especially after telling him how I planned on shooting him. I mean the guy reads and has been photographed by Vice magazine, how uptight could he be??? So here is my personal favorite from the shoot. Let me know what you think about it damn it! And the next time you’re out in the woods, keep your eyes peeled for anyone carrying a banjo, you may just end up squealing like a pig if you don’t watch out!
By the way, this is the most common found mushroom in North America….which I was reminded of a number of times by some fanatic.