dark and tender

here’s a dark and tender photograph i took last autumn.. her name is mandana. she fled the 1976 revolution in iran and descended on soho at the age of sixteen where she now runs her own private members club… it was quite late at night when i bumped into her and we talked only for a few minutes, yet clicked instantly right there by saint annes court alley where david bowie recorded hunky dory / ziggy stardust, and where marianne faithful kept her head down during her homeless days..  when mandana spoke she reminded me of marianne’s natural sophistication and street smarts which is a combination of things i find enormously attractive in people…

she also made me think of a fashion photographer called steven meisel who in the 1990’s became interested in doing portraits of older ladies. there’s something mystical about a face that’s flown down through the corridors of culture and experience. curiously the world of fashion photography hardly ever taps into it. i saw steven meisel in midtown manhattan once at a p.j harvey concert. she was very young then, but already had an older face. patti smith always had it too. these kind of ladies exude a knowledge of art and literature that radiates from their eyes, bones and jawlines. i love them for it