
He likes to say that he doesn’t think about his photography much, but the truth is that he is always thinking about it. His inspiration is momentum.”
On the farm, in the barn, the workshop, even up on a hunting stand, we spoke with photographer George Holz all afternoon, but it was his wife, writer, Jennifer Holz, who provided this perfect summation of her husband’s photo practice.
To be fair, Holz had been working around this idea throughout our conversations and when I mentioned what Jennifer Holz had said, he agreed immediately, adding, “it’s really adrenaline that inspires me.”
A quick look at his body of work will give a sense of just how much adrenaline he must really have. While probably best known for his intimate portraits of A-list celebrities, it’s Holz’s myriad magazine and album covers, movie posters, fashion shoots, and fine-art nudes that provide an even truer sense of the depth and sweep of his incredibly well-crafted photography.
But let’s get back to the farm. Cory and I were warmed by the hospitality of the Holzes when we visited their home in the Catskills, which itself has become known as a location, atelier, and respite for many photographers over the years. On the day we visited, it offered a snow-covered slice of winter paradise we both sorely needed.
Pulling into their property, we were greeted by a beautifully maintained Airstream trailer, a 1969 International pickup truck, a peach tree planted many years ago, and antlers and skulls from countless walks through the surrounding woods. And even a cursory look at Holz’s imagery will find many of these items used as backdrops or props. Speaking of which, while we unpack our gear, Ruby, their beloved dog, comes bounding out, followed by the photographer himself. After a quick introduction in their bucolic sitting room, Holz began suggesting locations and potential props for several portrait setups. In retrospect, it was the adrenaline talking.
Our first walk took us up to the barn, with Jennifer and George following behind in the pickup truck carrying his beautiful 11x14" Deardorff view camera to be used in one of the photos. While Holz sets up his camera and Cory his lights, we talk a bit about gear, and although never mentions it when we talk later about how and why he photographs, Holz rattles off the gear he’s used in a way that would make the pros at the B&H Used Counter salivate.
He says he currently rents Hasselblad or Phase for commercial work but admits, “I’ve always been a Nikon guy,” and gets a lot done with his Nikon D800, after having switched between the major brands over the years. He adds, “the Leicas are really nice on location and, of course, everybody’s shooting Sony now, which are great cameras. It’s all really cool, but when it comes to personal work, I love shooting film and I love my (Mamiya) RZs, but I guess my go-to camera is my Pentax 6x7. I just love the feel, the fast optics, it’s like a giant thirty-five, like comfort food.”
With our first setup finished, Holz packs up the Deardorff and we walk farther uphill to the pasture, while he and Jen speak of the great naturalist and writer, John Burroughs, who had lived nearby. It’s here we learn of Holz’s love for hiking, fishing, and hunting. He even agrees to climb up a tree into a 20' hunting stand for a photo. I ask, “Does spending silent hours in a tree stand help with your photography?”
“It certainly is like meditation and a lot of concepts and ideas are hatched up here.”
“The process creates itself.”
Up by the tree line, we also dig into some of his work process. “I approach commercial work and my personal work like they both might be in a book, I take them both very seriously but with a big commercial job, I plan more, make shot lists, have plan B’s, and for my personal work I’m very spontaneous. I know this land like the back of my hand, which helps, but even in other locations, once I set things up, I’ll jump around, I’ll watch for the light or the person’s mood to change. It’s a bit like being a basketball player ‘in the zone’; you’re prepared but not exactly sure how everything is happening. A lot is the human interaction, the trust level. What helps is having a model stay up here for a second day, because you have a chance to try what you might have missed the day before. Also, nature creates a new location every day which is inspiring. But the inspiration is there because it’s a project, it’s something I want to accomplish.”
“The process creates itself. I tell photographers who ask me, that you have to constantly shoot. That’s where my inspiration comes from, just keep shooting—don’t stop—like fishing or hunting. Yes, there’s some luck involved, but if you’re not in the stream or in the woods, it definitely won’t happen. You have to put in your time (and you have to be) opportunistic when the moment is there.” As legend has it, such persistence is what landed Holz his assistant gig with the famed Helmut Newton.
I ask Holz about “human interaction and trust,” more curious about how he chooses models, forgetting the trust he has earned from the most enigmatic of celebrities—Joaquin Phoenix, Angelina Jolie, Jack Nicholson and Beyoncé. But he follows my logic and answers that he often prefers working with people who haven’t been photographed a lot, who don’t really know what they look like, and don’t have the “36 poses,” referring to the typical number of frames on a roll of 35mm film.
By now our conversation has moved to his workshop, which as you might imagine, is replete with his classic portraits, outtakes beyond belief, files of negs and, near his computer, a small photo of his parents when they were in the US Navy. With the number of exhibitions and books he produces, his archives—well run by Jennifer—are continuously digitized with “new” images regularly re-discovered. Jennifer mentions the numerous “throwaway” test Polaroids that they saved over the years and their potential current value as “originals.”
Cory asks for one more shot of Holz with some of the larger prints that they store in the workshop, and could you imagine him being anything other than accommodating? He and Jennifer were so nice throughout the day; I was secretly not surprised when they invited us in for coffee and snacks before we hit the road. Truth is, it was the only way that such a great afternoon should end, and the conversation spilled into a second cappuccino and diverse topics, but I wanted clarification on this idea that inspiration and momentum are one in the same.
And yes, “momentum comes from jobs, or from seasons—fishing in the spring, hunting in the fall. I’m better when I’m moving, it’s in the ‘off-season’ when I find myself getting hurt. The beauty of momentum is that it leads you to the next thing.” And there it was: inspiration.
I ask about the confidence of one’s concepts and how important is it to follow through on previsualized ideas, “Are you okay with happy accidents?”
“Yes, as long as you can repeat them,” he says without the laugh I was expecting. “Environment, subject, timing may force you to switch gears, you have to be open to improvise, to try something different. I’m never so stuck to my preconceived vision that I’ll be disappointed. I think I know what I want to get, but I may take a different path, I’m open to changing my mind.”
Full of the spirit of the Catskills, I ask, “If the fish aren’t there today, you’ll come back tomorrow?”
“Yes. But you have to be in the water to catch fish.”
George Holz is represented by Staley Wise Gallery in New York and Fahey Klein Gallery in Los Angeles and hosts workshops at the Holz farm throughout the summer and fall. You can also follow Holz on Instagram.
Original images for this article were taken with the FUJIFILM GFX 100 Medium Format Mirrorless Camera.
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