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Rangefinder
Magazine Profile: Nancy Rica Schiff by Lou Jacobs Jr.
In 1987 when I first met Nancy Rica Schiff, we were jurors for Modern Maturity’s first photo contest. Though we’ve only corresponded since, I recall her sparkle, reinforced by her unique Christmas card images in which she stars. After she returned home to New York, she sent me a copy of her book, A Celebration of the Eighties. Published in 1983, it is a compilation of intriguing portraits of accomplished individuals 80 years old and over, such as George Burns, Ansel Adams, Aaron Copland, Al Hirschfeld (who died at 99 in early 2003), Linus Pauling, Rudy Vallee and Hermione Gingold. After The Eighties, Nancy’s next book was a collection of portraits called Odd Jobs. Nancy wasn’t always a photographer. She graduated Temple University with a bachelor’s degree in business education and taught typing and shorthand at a business institute in New York for four years. Next she apprenticed for two photographers, one who specialized in people and the other in still life. “They each paid me $10 a week (in 1976),” she explains, “and that was my photographic training. It was also one of the best years of my life.” Nancy progressed to working as studio manager for fashion photographer Barbara Bordnick, who was spending a year shooting a “Women in Jazz” calendar for Polaroid in 8x10 format.
“After that,” Nancy continues, “I did some freelance assisting, but I was too often hired for darkroom work when I wanted to be on location. So I found an agent and started getting my own work, such as covers for Opera News and Saturday Review. I did six for the latter in one year, including Woody Allen, Andy Warhol, John Huston and Arthur Miller. Almost all the assignments were on location, which I liked. “ My professional life as a photographer was boosted with a book entitled Spare Ribs: Women in the Humor Biz, published by St. Martin’s Press in 1980. I agreed to do all the book’s photos for a credit on the cover. In those years I was working primarily for editorial clients, plus some corporate accounts, through Black Star. I’d come a long way by 1983 when Harry N. Abrams published my book on octogenarians. My photos of talented people in their 80s were shown in exhibitions in New York City and Stamford, CT. A Celebration of the Eighties also led to editorial clients such as Newsweek, Time, The New York Times Magazine and New York Magazine, and it resulted in my shooting pharmaceutical ads.” She also got involved photographing twins—male and female, young and old—and the pictures were used in occasional editorial pieces, but they were not published as a book. “I went to several twin conventions,” Nancy observes, “and did an assignment for Newsweek on twins, as well. My favorite twins were always the children.”
By 1987 Nancy decided to move to Los Angeles for a two-year change of scene. She recalls, “After the relocation, I found that my old editorial clients from New York called me for their L.A. assignments. I also began working with an agent who sent me to photograph show business stars while they were doing promotions for their latest films. He then sold the pictures as stock. I call them my ‘10-minute shoots’ because that’s all the time I had, usually in a hotel room or office setting. I photographed people like Whoopi Goldberg, River Phoenix, John Malkovich and Spike Lee.” Nancy operated in a bi-coastal mode from 1989 to 1991, but says it got too much for her. “I could never remember where I was the week before. So I moved back to New York City and shot mostly pharmaceutical ads. One large project was a gallery of black-and-white patient portraits for Bayer offices around the country. The people were of all ages, and each used Bayer products.” I had never asked Nancy about her well-known annual Christmas cards, so she filled me in: “They’ve been a tradition since 1976, skipping only 2001. I started when a fellow photographer asked me to shoot his Christmas card picture, and he would shoot mine. Card themes moved from King Kong to Superman to the Wizard of Oz, and eventually became pretty elaborate—like a line of Rockettes, all me. My favorite card hummed ‘Jingle Bells’ from a voice chip that began when the card was opened. On the front of the card was the word ‘Bah,’ and inside I was dressed as a bug. ‘Humbug,’ get it?”
Nancy’s studio portrait work has included a lot of babies and families, usually in black and white. She finds that shooting black- and-white photographs gives her more of a sense of accomplishment, and the reproduction is less expensive because she does her own prints.
Interestingly, Nancy’s friendship with painter Raphael Soyer led her to doing A Celebration of the Eighties. “I modeled for him for 15 years,” she explains, “and I photographed him many times. He was a supporter of my work and a mentor to me, and he urged me to photograph Alice Neel, who painted with an unconventional, original viewpoint. She did a nude self-portrait at the age of 80. A fellow photographer saw my portraits of Neel and Soyer and suggested the octogenarian book theme. It seemed like a perfect subject for that time. I tried to get a grant and in the meantime set up some important early subjects. The grant didn’t come through, but a friend urged me to take a batch of portraits to publisher Harry N. Abrams, where she worked. The editors were excited about the project but didn’t give me a contract until I was two-thirds finished with the book, so I financed it on my own. “ I set up shoots in L.A. to spend one or two weeks there and accomplish a lot while staying with friends or relatives. That’s been my modus operandi on books. From the time I first went to Abrams with about 13 pictures, a year passed until I completed shooting. They wanted everyone to be alive when the book came out, and just one subject died before publication.
“ While the class took place, I was backstage creating a small set. After the class, Segovia was deluged by requests for autographs and snapshots, and he was gracious. Finally, after telling him I was going to kidnap him, I took his arm and led him to my set. I shot seven frames of him alone and the rest of the roll with the students for Time. I send all my subjects a print from photo sessions and was rewarded with a telegram from Segovia stating that it was the best photo taken of him that year.”
That first enthusiastic publisher wouldn’t wait, and Nancy says finding a replacement was hard. Finally, with 40 photographs, she had another serious publishing offer and continued shooting until she had 65 odd job subjects. But the publisher wanted to do a cheaper edition, and Nancy walked away. When she sent out new queries, Chronicle Books turned it down, but suggested Ten Speed Press (www.tenspeed.com), where the owner was prescient enough to do the hardcover, small-format, black-and-white book Nancy had envisioned. The advance they offered was disappointing, but she says, “For me it paid off. The book was done to my specifications, and I’m very happy with the final results.”
While A Celebration of the Eighties was shot half color, half black and white, Odd Jobs is all black and white printed in 4/C, one of Nancy’s specifications. The 4/C process offers the rich look of the duotone process. She used a Hasselblad for the whole series of square pictures in the book. A wide-angle lens was often handy “to get as much information into the shot as possible,” she states. The film was Plus-X rated at E.I. 100, When outdoors she used an old faithful Norman 200B for fill, and indoors she uses Dyna-Lite 800s. “I often use a tripod,” she says, “as I like to mix flash and daylight.”
Nancy is planning on a second volume of Odd Jobs: “I had so much fun doing volume one and met so many really neat people, but this time I want to do the pictures in a much shorter interval.” Nancy Rica Schiff makes the most of practical visions for her photography and has evolved into the consummate professional, doing magazine and advertising assignments. Fine environmental portraits and really attractive displays between covers distinguish her books. To see more of her work, visit her web site at: www.nancyricaschiff.com. She can be reached via email at: mail@nancyricaschiff.com Lou Jacobs Jr. is the author of 25 how-to photography books, the latest of which, Photographer’s Lighting Handbook (Amherst Media) was recently published. He has taught at UCLA and Brooks, is a longtime member of ASMP, and enjoys shooting stock during his travels in the U.S. and abroad. 6:
7: Working for Coors
in Golden, CO, Jeff Bell tastes and spits out beer all day. 8-9: Twins
from Nancy’s book of the same title. |
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“
I feel the most exciting and gratifying photograph in the 80s book was
of great classical guitarist Andrés Segovia. I learned about a
master class he was giving in New York, and when I suggested it to Time,
they sent me to photograph him with his students. On my arrival the P.R.
people told me to photograph him in the office where he waited before
the class. I knew that wouldn’t do for me. I knelt down next to
him and explained that I wanted a beautiful portrait for my octogenarian
book. He squeezed my hand, and I knew I had to do something wonderful. 
Nancy
has the quality of a great hunter who waits patiently for her prey. Another
example is her book, Odd Jobs, which was published in 2002, though
she began shooting for it 13 years earlier. “After about three
years of research and travels, I had about 15 photos to start a book,” she
explains. “Then for some reason I put the project in a drawer for
four or five years. When a friend in L.A. suggested I send the book proposal
to the publisher he worked for, I did. They loved it and wanted to publish
right away, but I had a lot more shooting to do. I immediately went to
the Westminster Dog Show in New York and photographed the dog handler
in the book, and that restarted me.”
Nancy had also been perceptive. The first printing
of Odd Jobs, a neat array of environmental portraits, sold out quickly
and Ten Speed Press
reprinted the edition to keep up with good reviews. The book’s
handsome portraits gracefully show people in what Nancy calls “truly
quirky occupations,” ranging from a condom testing machine operator
to a doll doctor, from a private zoo keeper to a LEGO model maker, from
a crack filler to a snake venom extractor.
Asked about the
possibility of switching to a digital camera, Nancy says she rented one
five years ago and disliked the shutter lag. She uses
an Epson scanner for negatives and prints, and runs pictures through
Photoshop before final steps with her Epson 1200 printer. 