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JIM HERRINGTON
photographer
nyc
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Waylon Jennings - musician - Nashville
Bette Davis’ cigarette
Late 1980s: Upon entering Bette Davis’ West Hollywood apartment, even the casual observer couldn’t help but notice the tiny white porcelain vases that seem to be on every horizontal surface, each sprouting a floret of cigarettes. Vantage filters - king size. Ms. Davis, 80 at the time, was as thin as a thread when I encountered her less than a year before she died, though impeccably dressed and with eyelids troweled peacock blue. She had already battled cancer and a stroke and I attribute to those unfortunate circumstances why she kept staring at me and crisply barking, “Who’s the young lady I haven’t met yet?”, which, like most of her verbal expulsions, was accompanied by a sharply exhaled column of smoke that seemed to be directed at some unseen evil force. I was a photo-assistant on this job, and after we had finished and Ms. Davis had retired to the confines of her sprawling apartment, we packed up and were leaving when I saw her freshly snubbed Vantage resting in the ashtray. I flicked it into a Kodak film box where it resided for 12 years until I pulled it out one day and took the photograph that you see here.
Dolly Parton - musician - Joelton, Tennessee
David Brower - climber - Berkeley, CA
Jerry Lee Lewis - musician - Mississippi
Jim Bridwell - climber - Palm Desert, CA
Willie Nelson - musician - Beverly Hills, CA
Col. Joseph Kittinger - Florida
I had known about Col. Joseph Kittinger since I was a kid. In 1960 he jumped out of a weather balloon at 102,800 feet and he almost reached Mach 1, the speed of sound, during his free fall. The skydive was done for high altitude research, but in the process he did nab, and still holds, the records for the highest balloon ascent, highest parachute jump, longest free-fall, and fastest speed by man through the atmosphere. I also remembered seeing him in National Geographic when he became, in 1984, the first person to fly a balloon solo across the Atlantic. I was reminded of him recently and decided to seek him out. He was game for a visit, so I went to Florida and photographed him and returned home with this photo, as well as a bag of oranges from the tree in his backyard.
