Translator: Yasmina Hablani Reviewer: Denise RQ
I don't feel very comfortable so hang on a second.
(Cheers)
Sorry. I can't do it any other way.
OK, I hope I don't rip my microphone.
(Applause)
Alright, I'll be right back.
Oh, I forgot my shorts.
I feel much better now.
So you probably recognize me.
I'm the guy in the pink tutu.
My wife Linda and I were here in Germany with a telecom commercial.
Let's see.
I've been a photographer, a commercial photographer,
an advertising photographer for over 20 years,
and I've been making pictures of myself about that length of time.
I use transformation
to perform self-therapy.
Twenty-five years ago, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.
And, one day, in my studio,
I was using fishing line for something for a photograph.
I walked in the bathroom, and I noticed,
I was looking at my face,
and I just started wrapping my head in fishing line.
And it felt really good.
It felt good for a little while, and then, it started to hurt.
It felt like I was being held.
So the next day, I went to...
I came back in the studio, and I started making photographs,
I was transforming into somebody I wasn't.
And after studying it for a while, I knew that I couldn't stop doing it.
So, I started doing this more and more.
And doing more sculptural things
and working through the pain of grieving for my mum.
So this transformation
was helping me.
I did this for about nine years.
I used metal, I applied it to myself.
And about ten years
after I was doing this project,
a client came to me and they wanted me
to give my interpretation of ballet.
And that's when I met the tutu.
And it was all about transforming myself into something I wasn't,
but it was for a job.
But I did it for them,
and it was very, you know, it was a successful solution.
So, during this time, my wife Linda and I,
wanted a change.
I lived in Arizona for 42 years.
So I figured, why not make a move now?
So we sold everything we had, for the most part,
packed up a truck, the dog,
and we moved to New York.
And why not?
You know, why not move from something
super simple to something super complicated.
(Laughter)
My dad thought I was a fool.
He said that in front of the whole family.
So, we packed up our stuff, and the tutu,
and I found myself in the desert.
And I put the tutu on, I was kind of angry,
I just wanted to get on the road, but I didn't take my socks off,
I thought of how it might protect my feet.
But it definitely didn't do that.
When we got to New York,
it was like going to the Moon without oxygen to me.
You know, going from something simple to something not simple.
I started photographing myself in these desolate areas
in a city of eight million people.
Then, a couple of months later,
I went to Coney Island just to put myself out there a little bit
and feeling a little more comfortable.
I was only called one name all day, it wasn't that bad.
So, I'm on the road, traveling a lot,
starting to see more things, becoming more comfortable,
visiting cows, and learning how to deal with the animals.
And then, I come home
and find out
that my wife Linda is diagnosed with a very gross form of breast cancer.
The past has woken up,
as my mum had passed away 26 years before.
So this is when I went back to my tutu which I call my little life boat.
But when I look back to the pictures; I start seeing darker images,
and I was like always ending up
somewhere dangerous or somewhere uncertain.
I ended up in the snow, which I wasn't really used to;
and I had socks on, but it didn't help.
(Laughter)
This time, I was in the desert, it was 56 degrees Celsius,
no self service, bad knees,
climbing up that rock on all fours,
trying not to fall.
They would have never found me.
Going to the ocean, and pretty much shooting in the dark.
And ending up on a road, somewhere.
Actually, it's one of my favorite spots in the United States.
And it was freezing cold.
Here I am.
Things were getting better, but Linda's cancer came back.
She had to go back to the cancer center.
She brought the images with her and showed them to her friends
and it made them happy.
It made the time pass.
So we knew that we had to do something.
We knew we had to share this project with the world.
So we decided, why not, publish a book
and put it out there to the world.
After a couple of months of Linda's treatments,
she started feeling better,
and we decided we need a break, we need a road trip,
we need to get our mind off of reality.
So we started in Atlantic City, New Jersey; perfect place.
I climbed up this little hill, the cars kept driving by,
and they start honking at me for some reason.
(Laughter)
So then, I finished the picture
and five police cars pulled up
(Laughter)
and the policemen said, "Is there a tutu in that car?"
as I heard the dispatcher say,
"We have another sighting of ballerina on Borgado Way."
And just then, this is when the story started,
and this is when things started to lighten up a lot for Linda and I.
This trip really helped bringing us together closer.
We were having fun again.
This time I'm hanging off a fiber glass palm tree,
and I ended up picking fiber glass out of my chest for two days.
(Laughter)
That was awesome.
(Laughter)
But it was worth it.
This time, I'm on a ferry --
I did ask permission, but I didn't ask the captain,
I did have a remote in my hand, just like this with a silver antenna.
And, next thing I know, the police were all around me,
they're searching my car, with dogs.
I think they thought
I was going to blow up the boat or stab somebody.
So we get to a hotel, I thought it was a very cute little hotel,
it had a little ballerina,
except for the fact when we walked in our feet were sticking to the floor,
that wasn't that great.
So, we end up...
one of the things that I wanted to do...
First of all, is making a picture in Time Square.
I thought that was the Holy Grail.
I thought it would be the hardest picture, with security, with police.
I brought a couple extra assistance that day.
And I put my tutu on, and nobody cared.
(Laughter)
Who knew?
It was the easiest picture.
All I had to do was wait for the walk sign,
go out in the middle of the street and lay down.
And the policeman, he's looking at me, and he doesn't care; really.
So, as we move on,
we're taking more pictures.
This one was in a parking lot.
A couple of years after I took this picture,
I realized this is the same parking lot I parked in
30 years before, when I was in college.
It was very bizarre.
So, at this point,
we knew we had to put it out in the world.
So we put a program together,
we were actually turned down by every publisher in the United States,
to publish our book.
So we decided to do it ourselves.
We set out 3, 000 emails with Linda's mission statement,
and we sold prints as we needed to publish the book to cover the costs.
When we sent the mission statement out,
somebody sent our project to the newspaper in New York
and they covered that, and then, Yahoo picked it up,
and two hours later, our whole life changed.
We were on the cover, we were on the homepage,
and a month later, we were on The Today show,
and within 12 hours, we raised enough money to publish the book.
So here we are, still working, me shooting, more than ever.
I go to the Lincoln Memorial, I'd never been there before.
When I arrived, there was about 1,000 people there in the afternoon.
And I knew if I went there in the morning, there would be a lot less.
So I got there before the sun came up.
As I was making my photograph,
this gentleman runs up the stairs, and he laughs at me for some reason.
And I said, "Oh, it's for a breast cancer initiative,"
and he stops, and he pulls down his pants a little bit
and he shows me where, he said,
"This is where they removed my kidney."
He just looked at me in my eyes, and he just said, "Thank you."
And then, he just jogged off.
And I knew it wasn't about Linda and I anymore.
It was just unbelievable.
I turned around, and I watched him run off
but I also saw one more shot, it was right behind me.
It was a gift.
This is me, with a million dollars guitar, Willie Nelson's,
in New Jersey Performing Art Center.
I was in my own neighborhood; the police drove up,
they're screaming at me to put my pants back on.
And I said, "Have your dispatcher go to our website.
Look it up.
It will explain everything."
One minute later, they were asking how my wife was doing.
It's been unbelievable, everything, the feedback that we've got.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
Thank you.
This image is the pinnacle.
I was in Central Park one day,
we had posted on Facebook we were going to be in the area,
one of our fans said, "Can I come along?"
After we made the picture, he said,
"Would it be OK...
What would you think of the idea of possibly doing an image
at the Lincoln Center with the Swans,
the American Ballet Theater?"
I'm like, "Yeah, that would be the best."
(Laughter)
So, they gave us five minutes, and that was it.
And then, this is what we did.
We were here two years ago for the Telecom commercial,
this was in Cologne, of course.
We were greeted by one happy police officer,
and I just kept saying, (German) "Thank you, thank you!"
(Laughter)
I had no idea what he was yelling at me, but my German assistant calmed him down.
This was at TEDx in Kalamata, Greece.
And here, I'm back home, on solid ground.
And I looked back at this journey.
I looked back at this hidden treasure,
which is my tutu.
Things happen in our life.
I have my pink tutu, and I think everybody should have their pink tutu.
Not a literal pink tutu,
but anything that you're passionate about,
something you can go to when times get hard;
something that gives you strength and lightens the load.
So, for me, life is busy,
it's unexpected,
we never know what's going to come at us.
Every day is like a roller coaster seems like.
I just want to leave you with this:
what is your pink tutu?
I am done.
Thank you.
(Applause)