LX :Tell us about your native village, Lake Elmo and can you tell us a
little about yourself ?
Eric : Lake Elmo is a small town in Minnesota, which is sort of in the center and north part of the US. Not much to say. It's a quiet town. I'm not a big city guy but Lake Elmo didn't work for me either. Now I live in Venice Beach, CA which is more my taste. It still feels like a neighborhood, but we have a good mix of interesting people.


LX :How have you landed in photography ?
Eric : I took classes through my high school. I took to it very quickly and decided when I was very young that it was what I wanted to pursue as a career. So instead of going to high school my senior year, I interned at a large advertising photo studio, bigger than any other place I've seen since. We shot fashion, ads, catalogs, in-store displays, for the company that is now Macys. Most of that work was still life, not people, and I think that's how I developed my lighting. After that I went to the largest photography school in the world, the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). I had some issues with the program when I started, my background was a little more advanced than a lot of the first year students, but I was required to take the first year classes anyway. Through a computer glitch I got into a 4th year-level-class that was all about shooting people for editorial assignments. The professor originally told me he wouldn't let me be in the class because of my age, but I showed him my portfolio and asked him to give me 2 weeks. He did, and I became a star student. I had experiences like this throughout my RIT career, and while I admit I would not have arrived where I am now without the experiences I gathered, I still say 98% of what I got there was self-discovery, not knowledge of photography.

Through RIT I was also able to study abroad in Paris. We were shooting for the model agencies out there, working with fashion design students. That was a major help.

I met my mentor, photographer Len Prince through school as well. I had brought him to Rochester to do a lecture for a student group. We got along very well, and he started flying me out to NYC to work on his shoots. I learned more in a day with him than I did in a few years of school -- I always tell young photographers who ask me where they should study to just intern. I went to college because my parents wanted me to have a college education. I love my parents and I am thankful for that education, but I still say investing that money in a studio apartment in the City while I intern with a photographer would have been more useful.


LX :Do you remember you from your first photoshoot ?
Eric : Good lord no. My stuff in high school was hilarious, I always needed more light (I'm the same way now) so when I set up photo shoots, I'd have dozens of lightbulbs to shoot them. Eventually I started renting lights. My early college stuff was very experimental, but I see similarities in what I've shot since. Some of the shots from my book Shooting Male were actually done in college.

LX :How you've selected models and locations of shooting ?
Eric : Everything with me comes about organically. I definitely have a way that I work during a shoot, but getting to the actual shoot happens a million ways. If it's a commercial job, I don't always have the say in the models. Same with magazines. But I almost prefer the challenge of a client coming to me with "this is who/what/when/where we need to shoot. Can you figure out how? Ultimately commercial photography is problem-solving. The line between my "personal" work and commercial work is basically nonexistent.

Some of the models are people I already know, ex-boyfriends, hookers. I'm really bad about approaching someone that I see on the street and asking them to model for me -- I rarely do it. I personally hate having my picture taken. Living in Venice, sometimes if you're out on your bike or something a TV producer will be like "Dude, I want to put you in this reality show, you into it?" and I always say no. I'm very shy if I don't have a camera in front of me.

LX :Are you not afraid of being labeled as a photographer for gays ?
Eric : I've dealt with that label my whole adult life. When it makes sense for me to shoot more women, I'll shoot more women. The men I shoot are very open and trusting, I've not met too many women like that in LA yet, but it will happen. I'm always going to shoot what I want to shoot, and it's starting to make more sense to shoot women.

I'm very openly gay, but I think because I don't fit the gay stereotype, people who know me personally before they know my work are confused. It's kind of amazing that people (even gays and lesbians) expect a gay man is like the one GLAAD endorses on TV. In truth, we're all just as crazy as the rest of the world. Some of us are very conservative, some of us are totally liberal. Some of us want families and kids, some of us think marriage is a weird concept. I work as a photographer, but we work in all industries, we're everywhere. I know just as many gay people in law enforcement and the military, for example, as I do not-gay people. If anything, my work with men has opened my eyes and kept me focused, that we are diverse, and that ultimately, most of the world doesn't care if you're gay or straight, just that you're a good person.

LX :Do you want take picture from celebrities and witch one ?
Eric : I've been shooting more celebrity stuff lately, it's fun when they want to be there, luckily for me most actors appreciate sitting for a good photo, but most are probably used to the cheeseball photographers that are out there and put up a wall when they arrive on set. The bigger stars are usually pretty cool. I think I've shot Neil Patrick Harris about 4 times now -- he was one of my first commercial gigs. I'd love to shoot Tom Waits and Bjork. Huge fan of Henry Rollins too. But like I said, my shoots come about very organically, I don't like pestering people about shooting them. If it's not for a job I feel like I need to know them personally first, or at least, they need to know they can trust me before we can work together, and they have to want to be there as much as I want to shoot them or it's not going to work. It's like a relationship, it can't be one-sided. I've had gigs with pseudo-celebrities where they pulled the "I'm a star, I can be a dick" bullshit on me and it doesn't work. Everyone is treated well at my studio, and I'm not above getting anyone coffee (usually they think I'm the assistant anyway, I'm still usually the youngest person on set), but when I'm basically there to help you promote your shitty movie, just calm down and lets have fun. I've only had a handful of people go "Hollywood" on me, when it happens I usually just cut the shoot short and thank them for their time.


LX :What is your greatest fear ?
Eric : I do a lot of set construction myself -- I'm very tactile, I need to be present while things are being created, but I'm always injuring myself. I keep thinking "don't get anything in your eyes" I don't know how I'd deal with losing my eyesight. I already have bad eyes.

LX :What is the indispensable quality in a boy ?
Eric : A boy or a man? A boy is a male who hasn't achieved manhood yet. I've met men in their 40s who are boys, and in their 20s who are men. Then again, I've met men who are women too. Man or woman, I get along best with people who are best described as "old souls." Being calm, strong, and generally reserved is a very attractive combination to me -- which is why LA is a sometimes difficult city for me.


LX :Are you satisfied with your new book, Shooting Male ?
Eric : Anyone who has worked with me creatively will tell you I'm very particular, and that sometimes means it takes a lot of work for me to be satisfied. I had worked with Gmunder on some of their anthologies before, so I knew the quality would be very good, but I also know a lot of their books are borderline, if not flat out porn, so that was a concern. I'm very satisfied with how it came out, we went through about 4 or 5 completely different edits and came up with something that is beautiful. But I didn't sign my contract with them until the book had already been printed or until the final edit I think. Once I saw it, I loved it. Getting to that point was a little more stressful. Probably for them too.


LX :What is your favorite picture in this book ?
Eric : The shower / water pictures will always hold a special place with me. They were one of the first big shoots I did in my studio. It took me weeks to build that set, alone. The last shot in the book shows you what I did. I even built most of the lighting myself for that shoot. I keep thinking I want to reshoot that now that I have much nicer cameras and lights. Next time I shoot something like that, it will be motion picture.

LX :Some new projects for the future?
Eric : many, but my lips are mostly sealed. I've been getting job offers based on the book, companies that want to advertise to gay couples, etc, and that's great. I've been shooting a very different series of closeups of faces for about two years now, including some celebrities. Spartacus himself, Kirk Douglas, was one of the more recent additions (he is 92 years old and an amazing human being!). The shots are without makeup or retouching and very high resolution. I've been hinting around that I'd like to do a book, the logistics right now are difficult with all the financial troubles the world is having, but I think it will happen.


LX : Someting to say to the 'French lovers' ...
Eric : Long time no see.