On a sunny Tuesday afternoon, I was standing outside Café Deville on E. 13th St. when a man approached me asking if I was an actor. The man’s name is David Croland, a successful and well known fashion photographer/illustrator, who hung out in the past with the likes of Andy Warhol, Robert Maplethorpe, and a slew of other luminaries of that time period. David is a very friendly, outgoing person. We started chatting, and one thing lead to the other, and I joined him and his friend at their table. The friend was Michael Gallagher, the owner of Gallagher’s Vintage Magazine shop in the east village. David agreed to be interviewed as “New Yorker of the Month”, and Michael let me know how out-of-my-league I was, sitting at that table, and how exceptionally lucky I was.
David excused himself briefly and Michael suggested I ask him about Maplethorpe and Warhol. At this point I felt I had hit the mother load of interviews. David returned and I began:
AskANewYorker: So do you know Baby Jane Holzer, David?
David: Yes I do, she’s a good friend of mine.
Ask: Will you tell her Kennedy says hello?
David: I’ll tell her whatever you want if you pay me. I can’t believe you’re bringing her name up.
Ask: It seems like you know a lot of famous people, and you’re probably famous yourself.
David: Have you been doing your research?
Ask: I had no idea I would run into you, so I guess not. Tell us about Robert Maplethorpe.
David: Actually, I was a very good friend of Robert Maplethorpe. That’s another person I know very well.
Ask: Would you say he is passive or aggressive?
David: I would say that question is very aggressive and I am saying “passive” on the answer.
At this point I went to retrieve a round of drinks, and I tried to collect myself and my interviewing skills. I came back and David was talking about synchronicity.
David: The coincidence level lately in life, the last six months, is phenomenal. Coincidence level meaning you meet someone and they know something about you. Why do they know it and do they know it through a psychic connection of some kind?
David starts thumbing through some photos he has taken recently, of Liv Tyler, Debbie Harry, Tyra Banks, Helena Christensen, and others.
Ask: David has photographed all types of models, including Cindy Crawford.
David: Not Cindy Crawford, but Tyra Banks and Helena Christensen. No Cindy Crawford, although I would love to photograph her. So we can substitute Tyra and Helena for Cindy, so that’s two for the price of one.
Ask: How was your shoot with Debbie Harry (of Blondie)?
David: Wonderful. She’s funny, she’s smart, she’s sexy, and she sings real nice.
Ask: She still totally rocks.
David: and she totally rolls.
Ask: Tell us about Warhol and how he helped start your career.
David: Well, I met him when I was 17 and he stopped me when I was in a store and he said “get that boy!”
Ask: any experience at the “Factory” with Warhol?
David: I did three movies for him.
Ask: Was Baby Jane in any of them?
David: No, but Nico was, the Velvet Underground, Susan Bottonal, who was called “international velvet”. And we did a movie together called Maka…just the two of us sitting on a couch and he putting her make up on and telling me how beautiful she was and telling me to get lost.
Ask: Was Warhol totally creative or off the wall?
David: He was totally NOT off the wall.
Ask: A secure person?
David: He was not insecure either, he was quite….
Ask: I understand he kept a stash of money under his bed?
David: I wouldn’t know about that. I’d never seen his bedroom.
Ask: What about his cookie jar collection? How many did he have?
David: So many! He kept jewels in his pocket, like diamonds, rubies, emeralds, kept them in his pocket like worry beads.
Questions I wished I’d asked, suggested by Michael Gallagher:
What inspired you to be a photographer? How do you deal with celebrity? What inspires you today opposed to twenty years ago? How was the interaction at the Factory with Warhol, and did it help you develop your artistic skill over the past twenty years?
