It’s a bit daunting to shoot a portrait of one of the world’s great photographers, but I went over to see George Forss today and try it out.  He is utterly unpretentious and humble, I took the plunge.

We went into his darkroom and wandered around his art gallery, I wasn’t feeling it. Then he stood in front of his large screen TV and told me these lights were the flying saucers he photographed the night of the Summer Solstice, and I knew I was on to something.

George, apart from being a photographic genius, is also a UFO Investigator with 300,000 miles on his investigations ban, an ancient Volkswagen bus kept alive by string and prayers. Until the solstice, George had never actually seen a flying saucer, but there, up in the sky, sitting in a lawn chair with some friends, two or three hovered right over his head and he got a photograph of them.

There is no better portrait of George than to catch him – entirely by accident – in front of the first flying saucers he has seen in his 75 years.  He is excited about the alien spotting in the sky. He says when they come for us, he will be the first one out there, yelling a the top of his lungs, “take me!”

George’s portrait will go in my Portrait Show, to be held sometime this year at the Round House Cafe. Maria is curating it, and I will get no breaks from her. I love this portrait of George, he is an amazing mind, it is much like the tunnels that run underneath the big city subways, it goes off in all kinds of directions, and never rests.

George just got out of the hospital, he was told to get serious about his diabetes, he told me his diet, and I almost fell over.  It is a miracle he is walking around at all. We are going to meet and talk about it.