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What follows is an interview with B. M. Bradley that I conducted over the phone in December of 1998. It builds on a previous interview, conducted in January of 1998.

B. M. Bradley is an erotic photographer, novelist and poet living in Los Angeles, and the creator of Wanton, a creativity web site.

So tell us about the new site, B. M. There's no poetry on it?

You know, I got tired of putting up my stuff, so I decided to put other people's stuff up. People I like, like Jennifer [Waller, whose works can be found here] and you and Gerald Lockin. Then I got bored with that, so I just pulled it down one day. I'm going to start using the site for commercial ventures, like Wanton Press, and I've just been too busy to do it.

Does Gerald have a web site?

No, sorry. He's a teacher, here in L.A., he's been teaching for twenty-five years. I met him at a poetry read. He doesn't even have e-mail, he sent me his stuff snail mail.

A bunch of people thought I was an editor, and have been sending me stuff to put on my site, and I've had to explain to them, "I was just bored, and putting work up, and now I'm not doing it any more."

About Wanton Press; you're making some calendars, right?

Yeah. I just wanted to have an outlet for my photography, for the overflow from my photography. I'm just going to make calendars if it flows well; if it becomes an uphill battle I won't.

How do you go about shooting your photography?

That's a big deal. It all started with E. A. Lynch, when she was editing Spoken War. She said that I should get a camera and start photographing my poetry. So I got a camera and started doing some shoots with some girls that I knew, but I was very unhappy with the lenses. I didn't have a professional setup, see, and since I work in TV and film, I kinda knew already what the stuff was supposed to look like, and had very high standards of quality. So I showed my poetry to a guy that works with me that has a professional camera set-up, and he told me he would shoot it, but I had to do all the design. I was kinda thinking that I would just give him the poems and come back in a week, to pick up pictures. It didn't work out that way. John told me that he would push the buttons and read the meters, but I'd have to do all the set-up.

When you decide to do a photo shoot, do you get an idea and then call the models, or do you use the presence of the models for inspiration?

All I've ever wanted to do my whole life was take pictures of naked girls, and I never thought I could. I didn't think I had a visual mind for imagery, in the literal, physical sense, rather than in the literary sense. So when I found out that I would have to do the thought process for my photography, it took me over a month to find a model that would do it. Actually, it took me almost a year and a half to find a photographer to work with.

So when I had the model set up, I sat and went through all my poetry and made cliff notes. I made a 3x5 card with notes on the sort of imagery I wanted for each poem. When it comes down to it, you've got a photo shoot that lasts about 2 or 3 hours and it's expensive. You don't have a lot of time to explore a lot of different concepts. So I had to figure out a theme that I could work with for a bunch of different poems, and shoot a lot of different stuff based on that one theme.

After you have it all planned out, you get the girl there, you get it all set up, and reality sets in. So what happens is, you have some image in your mind that you want to get, and you shoot everything on the way to getting that image, then you shoot that image, then you shoot all the stuff on your way back from that image.

As an artist, I've learned to trust in that process. I set up a rigidly controlled situation, very self-contained, like a lab experiment, and then I just let things happen. After I get it set up, I guide it, but I don't really control it anymore.

It's a collaboration between me, the model, and the photographer I was working with at the time. But he was more of a director of photography than a photographer. I was like the producer, art director, and director. I'd tell hem what I needed, and ask him what he needed to get to that. Then you just find girls that you can work with.

Did you find the model or photographer first?

Photographer. Getting the girls was the hardest part.

You don't use the photographer any more, then?

I still work with John on a lot of stuff. I have two cameras now, and he's teaching me what I need to know to work on my own.

How long have you been shooting?

Since March. March 1998, first shoot.

Tell us about the technical aspects of photography.

Well, you know, I've been working film and TV since 1983 or 1984 or so. I work in lighting. At one point I was even lighting director at a TV station. So I have a trained eye. I understand shot composition, from being at work and seeing so many bad shots. I understand lighting, and I understand video, but I didn't understand film. So now I'm learning film.

I also have a very impressive resume of DPs that I've worked for and with. I wrote it all out one day and was just fucking amazed. It seems like, where this is concerned, I've always been in the right place at the right time to meet the right people. The DP I'm working for now is the President of the Photographer's Guild. He's got lots and lots of Emmys, and he's teaching me lots and lots of stuff.

Now, when I go out shooting, John kind of babysits me. I've got my own gear and everything, and John gives me tips as I go.

So you know, the technical aspects are a balance between light and dark, setting up your camera, and deciding which film you want to use for which particular work. The one thing you need to have, and either you have it or you don't, is an eye for setting up shots, for what you're doing. If you can't see the shot, it doesn't matter what technical you can do.

You know, after doing this for nine months or so, I have four different types of film that I regularly use. It's just a matter of selecting which film I want to use for any given shot. I have the really fast film, the really slow film, and a couple in between.

The slow film gives you the fuzzy edges, right?

No, fast film is for fuzzy edges. The slow film gives you the incredible clarity. Except slow film won't work in low light. If you shoot with slow film in low light, you have to keep the lens open for a long time. Some of the shots we've done have been for as long as two to eight seconds, with the models having to stand perfectly still during that whole time.

I guess that's the most important thing for anyone who wants to shoot to know; you need to get the most professional models you can afford, especially when there's nudity involved. You really need girls that can pull through without head tripping. You need to be totally clear and focused on what you're doing, and so do they.

That, and have your ideas worked out ahead of time. Some times, we've even storyboarded out our plans before we shot.

Hey, B. M., what the hell is a DP?

Director of Photography.

You're planning on releasing calendars for the year 2000, right?

Right.

Are you doing anything with the photos besides calendars?

I got a book on custom printing. You know, I was very, very unhappy with the stuff I was getting back from the lab; with the lack of control I had over it. From that book I've learned a trick, and baby I'm working it.

OK.

Image transfers.

OK.

Transferring the image to a different medium, to different paper.

OK.

Yeah, I'm being cagey. I'm not giving it up. Buy your own damn book. I'm doing the transfers chemically, not in a darkroom. Hopefully in the near future I'll have a darkroom and can learn to print, so that I'll have total control of the whole process. Plus, I'm dying from the amount of money that I'm spending on the lab. Since March, I've spent seven thousand dollars on photo development. And I'm quite positive that I'll never stop shooting. It's like I've found my home. I know this is what I should be doing.

And it's all a direct result of the poetry, oddly enough.

What have you been shooting besides erotica?

Landscapes. Just whatever I see around, you know. Trains. Buildings. Walls. I got a great shot of a brick wall. The day after Christmas, I was in the cemetery shooting. Tomorrow I'm shooting a black man who's supposed to be cut pretty good. Friday I'm shooting some girls for the cover of their CD. But I prefer erotica. I like it.

I mean, anywhere you are, and anything you're doing, there's always a shot there. Life is art, or art emulates life, or life imitates art, however you want to put it. There's always something beautiful within a range of scenes.

Have you been to any poetry reads this year?

No. Well, one. I went to one to give one of my models a copy of some of the stuff I took of her. She was in town to do a read. The poem Poet is from that.

The poem about not being able to pick up some woman?

Yeah. I just couldn't pull the trigger on it.

Because of your nail polish?

Well, yeah, I quit wearing nail polish, just because it's so high-maintenance. I like nail polish though. I like the bubble gum-colored stuff. I just got where I could never get out of the nail salon without chipping it.

It's just, I couldn't throw a hump to such an emotionally empty person. She was just totally empty. Something's changing inside of me. You gotta hate growing up, you know what I mean?

Speaking of growing up, I'm particularly interested in your poem Breakfast. It has a totally different tone than what we normally see from you: it's almost conventional poetry, with a slow, quiet sense of sadness that doesn't involve whores or rock [crack cocaine]. What inspired it?

My daughter had a friend of hers spending the night, and I just wrote it after I cooked them breakfast. I don't know if its meaning is clear. I never really edited it. The stuff that I sent you is kinda raw material, it hasn't been gone through.

B. M., in this new batch of poems, you sent me several pieces on the abuse of women. What can you tell us about Bed-Time Story? Is that based on actual events?

Oh, Bed-Time Story. Oh, yeah, unfortunately that's a true story. Breaks my heart, man.

Where'd you hear about it?

It happened to a friend of mine's wife.

What happened to the guys?

Nothing. They never proved anything.

In Silverlake, you describe holding a woman down, fucking her in the mouth, then rolling over and falling asleep while she masturbates on your leg. You describe similar stuff in your novel, Highland Avenue [now available from Electron Press]. Was this the same person?

Probably, yeah.

When did this stuff happen, that it still has such an effect on you?

It was in the mid-eighties, so ten years ago. Fifteen years ago, now. I didn't think I thought about it a lot, but I guess I do.

You know, its like a lot of old stuff has been coming up in my writing and I don't know what it's all about. I never try to control what I write. Maybe when people read my work they thing that that's how I behave now in my life, but it's not. I know that my poetry and prose can push people away from me, but in my photography I try to take it the opposite way. I write things that are ugly. I take photographs that are beautiful and pull people in. It's a decision I made, that I use prayer to follow through with. I use prayer to stay focused on a loving aspect of things when I'm shooting.

When we talked last, you said you have no conventional religion. How do you pray?

Just to God. I don't try to understand it, it's none of my business to understand it, it's not my job. I just pray to "God" for lack of a better word.

Last time, we talked about how you compiled your works into books. Have you written another book this year?

Yeah, Status and Darwin, I sent them to you. Status is the latest and I never got around to finishing it. But now I write in books, I don't compile them. I just haven't been writing all that much; my creative energies go other directions now.

Besides the photos and your new poetry, what other creative efforts have you been into over 1998?

Well, I'm trying to create a way out of working at the studios, mostly. I don't like working in show business at all. It's too much of a commitment.

Any fiction this year?

No fiction. I did write a song for a friend of mine. He recorded it, and I think it came out very nice. It's a pop song. His name is Jessie Damon. Very nice guy. He's a recording artist, most of his stuff will probably go to Europe if he can't get something going here.

Actually, I've been looking for a guy like Jessie to work with for a while, he's got a great voice. If this does well I'll probably write some more songs for him.

I got another bass this year, so I'm in the process of getting if fixed up and getting an amp. I want to start playing again.

You mention punk a lot in your novel. Is Jessie punk?

Oh, no. He's straight-ahead pop, as pop as you can get. I love pop music.

From March to October I was totally consumed by the photography. I didn't have time to think about anything else creatively. Now I have a leg up on my photography, and I can do other things, while still maintaining the momentum I need to keep my photography going.

Just for today, my recovery is too precious to just wish about it. Today is a good day for action and prayer.
To the extent that I fail in my responsibilities, the program fails. To the extent that I succeed, the program succeeds. Every failure of mine will set back the work to that extent. Every success of mine will put it ahead to that extent. I shall not wait to be selected for service, but will volunteer. I shall accept each opportunity to work for the program as another challenge. Have I been willing to meet these challenges so far?

I pray that I may accept every challenge. I pray that each acceptance of a challenge may make me grow into a better person.

wanton@earthlink.com