The Artistry of Pure Genius: Lisa Harden Photographer & Graphic Designer
Being involved in the entertainment industry as a rock musician and rock music critic for over 40 years I have worked with literally hundreds of incredible photographers. Henry Diltz and Sam Emerson, two of rocks most famous photographers shot tons of pictures of me throughout the years. As a music critic seeing thousands of professional album jackets, press pictures and live in concert photo of the greatest rock stars, I have a pretty good idea what is the difference between a photographer who can just keep the camera in focus, and one who has the magic to compere the enter soul of an artist. Lisa Harden is one of those rare photographers who uses her camera to take the picture, but her inner spirit to capture the shot.
I first became aware of Lisa's unique talents when I attended an art gallery sale of some of the Brooks Institute of Santa Barbara, (one of the most prestigious photography schools in the world), where she was working on her BA. The artwork shown that night was all fantastic and showed such talent from these young artists, but there was one picture that captivated me to the point that I could not leave its sight. It was a black and white photo of a woman with her shirt off, with only suspenders over her rather large breasts. She was wearing a roaring 20's style hat and carrying a Thompson Sub machine gun in her hands. Of course, I found the picture both sexy and seductive, but more importantly, I was able to feel the mood of the model, the real person behind that gangster photograph. The photographer's genius took me past the elegance of the picture and into the soul of it.
I had to meet this photographer. At the bottom of the picture he read, Photography by Lisa Harden. And just in case you were wondering, yes I purchased that picture.
It just so happened that Lisa Harden was at the gallery sale and I had the pleasure of meeting her. Because of the brilliance of her work, I expected to meet a very serious artist, boarder on anal retentive. What I found was a beautiful young ladies, who's smile could melt anyone's heart, with a cute bubbly personality who would be the uninhibited one dancing on the table tops of some hip rock n' roll night club. At least that's how she seemed to me until we began to chat about her picture. Then a seriousness came over her, as if someone had flip a switch and had released her inner being. She was at that moment a true artist of remarkable talents. You could see it in her face, her body movements, even her smile. She was just not a photographer, she was the finder of ones inner soul.
When I told her I had purchased her photograph she was thrilled, even humbled. But I was the truly thrilled and humbled one, for I had just met a pure photography genius like I had never met before.
I asked her if she would some time be interested in photographing me with a rock n' roll mood for a project I had coming up. With a very calm, professional tone, she told me she would, but first she wanted me to go to her website and peruse her other photograph's to make sure I liked her work.
I don't remember how many hours I spent going over the pictures on her website, but I did remember finding myself falling in love with this persons eye for photography. She had me care about people, places and things that I didn't even know, but still felt I knew them well. She shot rock musicians for press pictures and live in concert capturing there most exciting moments. She shot models and made them come alive. She photographed a pair of red tennis shoes crossed over each other and made them appealing. She also had several wedding pictures in there as well, and once again the magic of the joy and love between the two people just married filled my heart with there happiness. I was not simply impressed with her work, I was memorized.
On the evening of my shoot, she brought along with her a make up artist. Perhaps she was hoping to take a few years off my face. After all, there's only so much one can do with photo-shop; Grrrrr!
The groovy news was the make up artist was the same model who was in the picture of Lisa's I had just purchased at the school's art gallery sale. Needless to say, I was thrilled about this beautiful young lady working on my face, as I did my best not to share at her breasts.
While my make up was being applied Lisa walked around the castle looking for just the right locations to photograph me. When she was ready she started to shoot. She sat her camera back so far that I could hardly see her. Then as she shot, she began to talk to me, as if we were having a conversation over lunch. It was like she was trying to get inside of the real me. She shot for hours in several locations until she proclaimed she got the shot and was done. Got the shot I asked, only one shot. She smiled, and said, we'll see.
A few days later she showed me the pictures that she liked. She wouldn't show me the other ones. Just the ones she was satisfied with. To this day she has never shown me the other picture she shot that night and there must have been easily over one hundred more. But that's the way Lisa is. She only shows the pictures that she feels captured the magic.
I was so pleased and overly impressed with the shots she got that I dedicated to use all of them on my rock music CD, entitled Memoirs of the Marquis de Sade.
My phone maybe be filled with some of the best photographers in the rock music industry, but the only photographer I will ever use for my professional pictures is Lisa Harden. Not just a remarkable photographer, but a genius who captures the souls of her clients.
