#BonOnTheJob

A PHOTO DIARY BY BONNIE BIESS // WORK SITE //

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Quincy Jones. 2010. Talk about a smooth cat. I was a young pup 26 covering portraits and set stills for AOL’s Black Voices at the time and remember thinkin ‘wow! This dude brought Thriller AND Fresh Prince into the world!’ Amanda Diva (Seales) hosted him for her series ‘The Spark’. He was very chill and candid. He definitely did not hold back what was on his mind. He asked if he should sign his polaroid in Chinese. I said hells yeah. Pleasure to work with. Rest easy Q. @quincyjones @amandaseales #ripQ #bononthejob

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#bononthejob fun times snappin til sunrise for @partymonstersnyc Punk Your Fetish Ball ⚡️ Happy Halloween my loves! 🤘🏻📸🎃📸🤘🏻

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Day 5 - Service I am grateful for Service. There is something about serving the energy within others that grounds my nervous system. It lights me up. Turns me on. My skin gets glowy. Service keeps me flowin. Keeps my head out of the dirt. Its never about the person, the organization or even about me or any do gooder bs. My mind tries to tell me so but then something deeper is revealed be it in the moment or years down the road. There is a call I feel in my body that often makes no logical sense. It comes as a whisper. It says things like ‘go see this person’ or ‘go walk the street right now’ or ‘go photograph this event’ or ‘let them go’ or ‘send this saucy text’ or ‘dont go here.. hold.. hold.. ok go there.’ Then I meet someone Im supposed to learn something from or share something with. Sometimes it says yes to something I have no idea how Ill pay for. Then the universe provides. Never ever assuming it will. But faith helps. Its humbling. Trusting it over and over. Keeping my vessel as clean as my trash eating cig smoking body will allow so the whispers are clear. Doing my practices as priority to strengthen it. Being handed my as$ when I dont. Loving myself when I ‘mess up’ and fall in a hole. I follow that voice. I surrender. Try my best to just feel all Ive suppressed. Find compassion. Open. Receive. Find the cosmic jokes. Remember that the universe has my back. I find gold in the hole and come back up. All in community. A necessity for this work - especially sisterhood. Im in a few communities of people that really value this too. They are different but similar. We all serve the same energy with different frequencies and modalities. Through different forms we bring it all back to one thing. Love. @freefoodliberateeverything is one of the places I love to serve. I love food. I love real folks that are honest, kind, grateful, love a good time and a bangin plate of fried chicken. You can talk to eachother about anything. Share the things you learned with eachother while you were or are in the dark. Through connection. Creation. Truth. Laughter. My ego takes a seat. My heart and my belly feel full. #30daysofgratitude

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Day 2 - Dark Humor and Pee-wee Herman Im grateful for Paul Reubens. Peewee’s Big Adventure. I remember the blue ink and capital letters of my father’s handwriting on the VHS tape I played over and over. Sandwiched between Weird Science and Ghost Dad. My first artistic memory of finding hilarity in the down. The wild colors and characters. The twisted swirlings of a young Tim Burton. The breakfast machine. The desperate longing for his bike. Hissing at thugs in the rain. Jimmy crack corning himself off a train. Going drag at an officer checkpoint. I used to hit pause when Large Marge did her thing. It felt comforting and very at home to me especially while experiencing divorce and death at an early age. Experiencing loss to the point of raw surrendered lunacy. The levity rounding it all out. The Hero’s Journey. It was a foundational reminder to never take life too seriously. It gave me so much permission to just be silly and fucked up in my feels at the same time - be myself - especially when the air in the room feels thick. Making Mom, Dad and anyone else in their shit have a laugh. About a decade ago I got to spend a day photographing him. His eyes saw my lens through the crowd at Katz Deli as he ordered his lunch. Likely a Reuben. Man those are bangin sandwiches. Anyway he let people know where he was going on Twitter through the day to promo his Broadway show. City Hall to Harlem he lit up the streets. People were nerdin out on this dude - myself included of course. He really brought out the joy in people. He posed for photos and got on people’s phones. He mischievously pretended to steal street vendor tees and shared fried chicken dinner with us at Sylvia’s. My God that laugh. It kept us all going. By the end of the day he was tired and cranky - very similar to seemingly defeated moments in the film. Quirky and friendly one moment and eye rolling and prickly the next. He kept it funny and he kept it real. A true artist. Thank you Pee-wee. Thank you Paul. @peeweeherman #bononthejob #30daysofgratitude

[bonniebiess]

Courtney Love is my favorite scary rockstar broad. I dont care who wrote what for who I worship Hole and all things Nirvana. I loved her. She was nuts. It gave me so much permission to be. I was 26 here. Id never drank before a shoot but was so nervous that I did 2 shots of Bushmills right in front of my mother when I got the call that she was comin in. I was terrified and beyond excited.

She got there and I heard her bustin our director ladies’ chops and yellin for her Wednesday dose in the green room. My heart raced. I loved hearing her raspy unapologetic voice rehearsing through the wall. It was the anniversary of Kurt’s death. We didnt know what to expect

She needed an iPhone charger so I gave her mine. I was introduced as her photographer and the one charging her phone. Brownie points. She busted a few poses making sure her arm stayed connected to her guitarist to avoid edit and off she went. She left her glasses and lyrics on my gear.

Id realized Id forgotten to snap a polaroid for my collection. I knocked on the green room door. Told her assistant and handed her things in. Suddenly hear “oh I love Polaroids!” Into the den I go. “You gotta get me smokin! Smokin in the AOL building!” She just kept posing. I wasnt expecting it. “Lets do a Helmut Newton pose!” I think Id left my body at that point.

I snapped one and she blinked. “Oh I fuxkin blinked!” She rips the polaroid out of my camera. I go to shoot and it wont go. My heart sank. “Oh sh!tgirl I think Im outta film.” (I later find out I have film but Miss Love broke my camera.) She gives me a disapproving eye but doesnt lay into me. I think she liked me cuz I had a Radiohead tshirt on and she could smell the fangirl on me behind my cool girl bs.

“These are cute. These are cute. OK. You get this one. Im gonna give these to all my friends.” and drops em in her purse. I humbly say thanks and dip out of there with my head still attached.

I get back to my set and realize she threw the pulled polaroid across the room. I went back in to find it. Nobody in there. All are in the interview room. No luck. I look over. I see the purse.

I don’t know if was the high of the shoot or the pure raw feminine chaos energy in the air but I went for it. Past the smokes n over the lipstick I find my shots. I pull out 4. Put one in my pocket. Heart pounding out of my chest at the thought of her walkin in at that moment and mauling my face clean off. Im about to book it when I hear the voice in my head. “She gave you the one you want. You get caught and youre fuxked.” I took a breath, put it back and ran like hell.

My editor saw my face. I told her what was up. I thought she’d never put me on anything ever again. She put me on everything after that.

Happy Birthday Court. Thank you for teaching me how to rock and give less fuxks. I hope you enjoyed the polaroids. Sorry bout the purse fiasco. You owe me a camera. Love, Bon

[bonniebiess]

Cookie Monster // AOL. NYC. 2011. I remember Cookie came in to celebrate Mother’s Day with us. He showed up in a clear plastic bag. It kinda messed with our heads a bit but you couldnt see his face so we were cool. It just looked like a shag blue pillow. What I loved is that his handlers will not make him talk if you can see them. As soon as they are out of site boom Cookie is on. Whats fun about this is no matter how professional everyone in your crew will suddenly turn 3 years old with joy. We’re not really supposed to jump in photos with celebs but somebody did then all of us were like ‘well hell if he gets one I do!’ PR looked at me goes ‘happens all the time’. He had a box of his own specially made cookies designed to crumble perfectly upon attack. I think he went through like 3 boxes. Good times. #bononthejob #bonstories #cookiemonster #bts #photoshoot #studiolighting https://www.instagram.com/p/CpD-rQjOSR2/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[bonniebiess]

Timeless Truth // Album cover for ‘Rock-It Science’ // NYC Frosty late night portrait session in front of the Tourneau store. Quick and portable setup with SB900 in medium softbox on left with SB900 behind subject. ❤️⚡️🕚📸❄️ #bononthejob #portraitlighting #hiphopduo #brothers #tourneau #timelesstruth #nightportrait #sb900 (at Tourneau) https://www.instagram.com/p/CVZA1K1MMUU/?utm_medium=tumblr

[bonniebiess]

This was my first big shoot back since the world flipped. My stepfather passed about 2 days earlier and I just threw myself into the gig like it was another planet. The video and photo sets were back to back and everyone danced safely around eachother. I love set life. There is so much connection and stories that unfold in the hurry up and wait. It was hard not to hug. We were all just so damn excited to be there and grateful to get the chance to create again. #bononthejob #portrait #bts shoot with @gettyimages for @discovery. NYC. October 2020. #signofthetimes🤘🏻😷📸 📸: @haley.geffen https://www.instagram.com/p/CNq8wJoLXnH/?igshid=kjlje8lef55f

[bonniebiess]

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. AOL Music. NYC, 2009. I think this was one of my first group portraits. We were down one Bizzy but it took every inch of my soul not to nerd out fangirl on these gentlemen. Me and my girlfriends loved us some Bone Art of War in middle school. They came in and my inner 7th grade Bon was like ‘oh shittt I know all the words to Thug Luvvv!’ But I kept chill and just told them thank you for the music. Definitely less likely to hold back on the dorkass lovebombs these days though for sure. 1 1600 Alien Bee in large softbox front left 2 gridded 800s back left n right for rim #bonebonebonebone #hiphopnerd #portrait #lighting #bonsarchive #bononthejob #polaroid #1stofthamonth #bonethugsnharmony #alienbees #dorkass #thugluv https://www.instagram.com/p/CNeEy94r--O/?igshid=8w0co2thi9u0

[bonniebiess]

Andy Williams. Guitarist of @everytimeidie. Noisecreep. NYC, 2010. #bononthejob #bonsarchive #editorial #noisecreep #portrait #everytimeidie #peeweeherman #notforsalefrancis @andycomplains (at Webster Hall) https://www.instagram.com/p/CNVUNWnLeJR/?igshid=4ahaxltlep8r

[bonniebiess]

Authors Shirley Halperin and Steve Bloom for “Reefer Movie Madness: The Ultimate Stoner Film Guide” - NYC 2010. 💚 One thing I love more than working with movie nerds is working with stoners. Theyre always up for whatever whackass idea you wanna throw at them for a photo. Shirley and Steve were coming in to promote their new book “Reefer Movie Madness: The Ultimate Stoner Film Guide”. Rather than a quick snap against a wall I wanted to play with my inner LaChapelle. We don’t often get to with press shoots. I had the thought to have them chiefin to the point that their movies are joining in. I put them on whatever couch I could find in the office and set the soft box w a 1600 alien bee up on the ground to light them like a TV. I shot the TV, painting, the joint and a different more stonery couch offsite. I shot the smoke separate and painted it in and adjusted the wall to bright green. Lookin at it I can definitely put way more stuff on the wall but it left space for text. Just a fun no budget way to get the point across in a 2 minute shoot. 💚 #bononthejob #bonsarchive #portrait #composite #concept #conceptualportrait #conceptualphotography #conceptual #alienbee #lighting #authors #stoners #movienerd #reefermadness #420 #potculture #puffpuffpass @shirleyhalperin @stevebloomdude https://www.instagram.com/p/CNC5y1aLBKs/?igshid=16ngpqj6fbwgd

[bonniebiess]

Election Night. Times Square, NYC. 2008. ❤️ Man the vibe of this night was just pure love and joy for humanity. Everyone so united and hopeful for the future. Not a dry eye in the place. A man next to me on the phone cryin' "We did it Mama!" People were huggin and dancin' in the streets. I still find pockets of it in this town. I really believe we can get back there somehow - hopefully as a Nation. https://www.instagram.com/p/CHMmI5eDODq/?igshid=2svcb2dbqlwc

[bonniebiess]

3.27.20 - Caught this Mama n little one from the roof tonight as everyone came out at 7pm for the international #clapbecausewecare movement - paying back some moral support to our health care workers, police, MTA, civil servants and essential business employees who are still out there working. #IloveNY ❤️📸 (at East Village) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-Q2U0sDHvc/?igshid=14n9vqkzmtloh

[bonniebiess]

#bononthejob teamin up w @ahargrove_photo today @lovewellness for @gettyimages #happyplace #photonerds #bts #profotousa #nikonlove🤘🏻❤️📸❤️🤘🏻 https://www.instagram.com/p/B8iB2YnjZCm/?igshid=1p1rbx8nkkzev

[bonniebiess]

2.7.20 twas quite the day for baddies @siriusxm #JackieCruz #HayleyWilliams #LadyLondon #RosarioDawson @gettyentertainment #bononthejob🤘🏻😍📸 https://www.instagram.com/p/B8SR5e9jJ0b/?igshid=84dtnvapkg7v

[bonniebiess]

#Bononthejob fav snaps from an epic last night with @princessgoesofficial and @missguynyc @mercuryloungeny - and a @blondieofficial birthday surprise cherry on top!! So fun!!! Happy Birthday #MichaelCHall!!🤘🏻📸🤘🏻❤️ @gettyentertainment (at Mercury Lounge) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8EvfbjFoSY/?igshid=1xzac10nvdafz

[bonniebiess]

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 31: (EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE) #bononthejob and her badass photo wifey @marohagopian roll Halloween prom pose af at SiriusXM Studios on October 31, 2019 in New York City. #HappyHalloween #photowives #nikonlove 🤘🏻😈📸😈🤘🏻 (at SiriusXM Studios) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4TF2bbj3wm/?igshid=nysgkeb0ayvj