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Stephen Mosher

@dozermosher

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Books: The Sweater Book, Lived in Crazy, & I Am Going To Tell You A Story. Films: Married and Counting & eVil Sublet. Available for photo shoots.

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I posted this on my personal Facebook page last night but since I have connections on Instagram that aren’t on the Facebook Machine, I screen grabbed it to share here. Because the message is true, and truly felt. I send everyone love, today and every day. NamaSTE by @dozermosher

From my Facebook page. A little look into what’s happening in my world. Stay well everyone. And happy. namaSTE by @dozermosher

Vote, ya'all. We have to power to change things. by @dozermosher

I am going to tell you a story… about Dan Tracy. I was studying to be a personal trainer and it wasn’t going well. I wanted to quit. I couldn’t understand the textbook. Since Dan was a personal trainer, I asked him to help me study - he said yes, immediately. We sat for a long time on my sofa at home, with me asking questions and him answering, and, then, me not understanding. I was in a cold panic, and I started to cry. Then, this straight male who does not love expressing his emotions leaned in, grabbing my face in his hands and pulling me in to him. His two hands engulfed my entire skull, with his fingers splayed out around my ears and cranium, his palms holding me at the cheekbones, tight. He looked me in the eyes and gave me the quietest, calmest, strongest pep talk imaginable, telling me that I WOULD do it, that I WOULD pass the test, that I WOULD be a personal trainer. A month later, that which he said to me came true.

Dan is The Man, and everyone knows it. Yes, he can be quiet and hard to read, he can be introverted and evasive, he can be reserved and reluctant to share his feelings. But he has feelings, maybe bigger than anybody in the room. He has volume - one has only to listen to him sing to know that - and you can read him by listening to his lyrics. He can be extroverted around the right people and he can come out of his shell with the right encouragement. He is very silly, usually around his wife, Melissa, and he can be the best friend you’ve ever had. He just needs the right soil in which to be planted and the right nourishment to grow.

Once, after a performance of my club act in which Dan appeared, Melissa said to me, “He doesn’t look at me like that when we sing together.” Well, after all, he is my Brofriend. by @dozermosher

Shana Tova! ❤️‍🩹 by @dozermosher

I'm having a website built because a person or two has asked where they can read about my work online, and I happen to know a great website creator, so I figured, what the heck? I mean, I guess I can't expect people to book photo shoots with me if they don't know that I'm taking bookings. So I sat down to pick a couple of photos to represent my photography on the new site - and it really is two pictures. They will be on the page next to a paragraph about my life in photography, along with the links to this IG page and my professional FB page.

The two photos I chose are in this post. Anyone want to guess which ones I picked?

And if anyone likes what they see here and wants to talk photos, all that needs be done is to reach out. I'm around.

I'm always around. by @dozermosher

This is my son Patrick Cronen. Many people have many questions about my having a son, how we came together in life, and why we have different names. Suffice it to say that Patrick and I share no DNA and we chose each other. He calls me 'pop' and he calls my husband, Pat, 'Sr.' and I am as proud of him as a father as I would be if we did have a genetic bond. There is the breakdown on that, for the people who need it.

As far as this photo shoot for the I, OF THE BEHOLDER series goes - I was Patrick's first photographer and, for a few years, his only photographer. I pushed him out of the next, insisting that it was important that he learn what it is like to work with other photographers. Now, he is one of the most photographed men in the world, and he has worked with photographers more famous and more skilled than I. But I have the satisfaction of knowing that I was the first.

Patrick lives out West, and during a trip home to NYC, I asked him to do the I, OF THE BEHOLDER project. I was a little nervous asking him. He had gotten so big and had worked with so many great photographers, here in New York, and out in Los Angeles. I didn't think I could measure up, and I thought maybe we might have lost our mojo. But Patrick was generous and loving and caring and threw himself into the photo shoot and the interview with aplomb, honesty, vulnerability, and humor. I couldn't have been more pleased with the experience or the results.

Patrick has made a real place for himself in the industry, made a real name for himself. He is currently a spokesperson for Easy Off and his commercials often pop up on my social media and the televisions at my job, and, I have to admit it: I brag. I really don't think I could be more proud. He's a good boy and a hard worker. He deserves the good he gets.

He's also an animal lover, and that makes me proudest of all. by @dozermosher

I am going to tell you a story… about The Connors. Gene and Amy Connor had been trying to get pregnant for a while, and they finally were! And, ever the artists, they had an idea for a series of photographs. We would do nude photos of them in three stages: trying to get pregnant, pregnant, holding the baby. The first photo shoot was easy enough - Amy and Gene had both been dancers, they weren’t nervous about showing their bodies, and Amy had shown her body for some time on Broadway in Oh! Calcutta!. The photos were lovely and I picked the one that would be the foundation for the second and third photos. Only, we couldn’t get the second photo. I kept calling and saying, “It’s time,” and Amy would say, “No we want to do it just before the baby is born, so I’m REALLY pregnant.” I called, she said wait. I called, she said wait. I called, she said wait. Finally, I called and said, “We are doing the photo on Saturday. Please block off the time. I don’t want to wait any longer.”

Sam Connor was born on Tuesday.

(When published in my book I AM GOING TO TELL YOU A STORY... these photos included three black and white photos of mom and dad Gene and Amy Connor in which they appear in a state of undress, so I cannot share them on social media. The book can be purchased on the Blurb Publishing website.) by @dozermosher

I've been working on this scan of Phyllis Cicero made in the early Nineties. I had a scan that I did of the negative years ago, using a JUMBL scanner, but I found the quality to be very grainy. I wanted to do a new scan that captured the lustre of her skin, the fur, her hair. I tried a treatment in which the detailed hairs in the fur showed but I didn't like it as much as this one, where the blacks in the fur transition to the blacks of her hair and the blacks of her hair transition into the blacks of the shadows in her neck, so I chose this higher-contrast treatment. I also considered adding some glam in post - not a lot, just some eyelashes, but it didn't feel authentic to Phyllis, whose natural beauty was always enough to put the vision across.

This photo was in serious consideration for The Mosher Monograph because I loved Phyllis so much and I was very happy with all the photos from this shoot, particularly this one, but I had to ask myself the three questions being asked of every photo that has been placed in The Monograph:

1) Is there a strong story being told in the photo?
2) Is the person in the photo a person with whom I had a strong association in life and in art?
3) Is the photo one that people would look at and say, 'Stephen Mosher did that,' or 'I didn't know he did that!'

And when it came down to it, I could not answer yes to any of those questions. This is a beautiful photo of a beautiful woman but I don't consider the story within the portrait to be strong enough. Phyllis and I were friends and I loved her, but our names were not a team, like it was with Nancy LaMott or Vince Gatton. And, finally, this isn't a photo that people know well enough for them to recognize it as a Mosher. So, with some sadness but a sense of reality, I took the photo out of the collection of my greatest works.

But it's in my digital frame at home, so I see Phyllis every day. And that brings joy.

Phyllis was filmed on Kodak TMAX 100 black and white film using a Minolta X700 35mm camera. This restoration was made using an Epson negative scanner. by @dozermosher

I have a review out on BroadwayWorld Cabaret of the Jekyll & Hyde Concert that had 54 Below at Standing Room Only on Saturday night - and it should have been an SRO night because the concert was sensational. Scott Siegel really brought it, and so did his wonderful cast, featuring @benjonesmusik @dianicaphelan and Tony nominee @christiane.noll who originated the role of Emma in the OG production of J&H. Great night of cabaret theater. by @dozermosher

This is a re-post from my Art Restoration page of a photo I shared a while back because it's so much fun and I have such a fondness for it. This was a light moment during the shooting of the publicity stills for PRECIOUS SONS at the Blank Theatre Company. I was always proud when Daniel Henning asked me to do photos for the theater he and Noah Wyle ran out in Los Angeles. What a nice compliment to be asked to do their photos, when scheduling permitted. I always had a great time at this job.

The photos for Precious Sons were pretty straight forward, kind of serious, a little dramatic. There wasn't a lot a laughs in the shots ...

but there were behind the scenes.

Here are Gregory Jbara and Ginger Williams having a laugh. by @dozermosher

The first time I met Emily Tello was the day that Jake Speck brought her to Two-A to introduce us to his fiancee. That day, I did photos of them. I got to go to their wedding (Sadly, Pat was acting in a play and could not go) and we've had the chance to meet their children. Jake and Emily have been a major part of our lives, so I just had to have them in the I, OF THE BEHOLDER project. They are, as you can see, beautiful of face, but they are solidly beautiful of heart. I really wanted their energy attached to the project.

But I also wanted another husband-wife interview. By the time I photo'd and interviewed The Specks, I had already talked to the affianced Aaron David Gleason and Stacey Bone, and I had chatted with Chris Westfall about the nature of being married to a beautiful woman and watching her react to getting older. I was very interested in having people of varying demographics and experiences talk about beauty, about being beautiful, about the perception of one's beauty, and talking with a married couple was a big part of that conversation.

Also, I love photographing couples - and you can see how different couple of different lengths relate to one another in the studio. Though young, Emily and Jake acted like an older couple, the way Me Mother and Father always did - it was the way they leaned into each other that showed it. And I loved Emily being higher than Jake - they are both very tall and although she is sitting on his lap in the photos, she appears as the dominant figure. The husband relies on the wife. I love the story it tells. I really just love them. They are remarkable people.

Who both wore purple on the day of their photo shoot.

You can't ask for something so perfect every day of the week. by @dozermosher