"Happy birthday, Otto. You don't look a day over seventy-nine."
"I shouldn't. I am only 28 in dyslexic years."
The date was March 6, 1993. He had a pool stick in his hand.
We were in the men's recreation room of the Burbank Y.
Otto was hustling a young man who had no objection to losing ten dollars.
The young man was an actor who needed to show off his wad of bills:
accompaniment to his boast that he had just landed a role in Different Strokes.
The best joke about Otto's age came later that day from someone in the locker room.
"Otto's been a photographer since forever. He goes back to Biblical days.
He told Jesus to lose the bloomers and get a loincloth."
Otto was born in Denmark on March 6, 1911.
In addition to promotional photography for jackhammers and churches, Otto Jensen photographed ten mayors of Burbank, two Presidents (Reagan and Nixon), Bob Hope,
Joe Louis, Jayne Mansfield, Prince Charles, Sammy Davis, my mother & my car...
Years later, he told me that I was the first person to be invited to his one hundredth birthday party. Otto was ninety-five at the time and it was virtually impossible to find anything about him–or his photographs–on the internet. I did not attend his centennial birthday but,
at my suggestion, a neighbor attended.
The neighbor is a journalist for a Danish newspaper.
For his homeland, he wrote a feature article celebrating
Otto's centennial accomplishments.
Effectively, that was my long-overdue gift to Mr. Jensen.
In 1994, I needed Otto's professional services to photographically document
campus vandalism to my car. He came over to my house, ostensibly to negotiate a fee
but before that happened, he picked up a small object from a bookcase and exclaimed
"I want to blow this up."
The object was a two inch by four inch snapshot
of my parents looking luxuriously happy.
"Otto, I honestly do not know when–nor where exactly–that picture was taken but I guarantee it was taken before 1949."
"Why 1949?"
"That's the year I was born."
"So?"
"They could not have been that happy after having put me on this planet."
"Whatever."
Therefore, the man who photographed jackhammers, churches, mayors & Presidents
also photographed my father.
In the name of accuracy, he re-photographed (and enlarged) this heirloom picture
of my parents. In due time, he repeated that process
with a half-dozen other family jewel snapshots.
Presently, those heirloom enlargements are exhibited in Virginia, Maryland,
Pennsylvania, and New York.
My sister lives in Virginia.
Her three grown-up children live in the other states but are all too young
to have ever known their grandparents who both passed away in 1971.
Rather than say "re-photographed," Otto introduced me to the term
"Second generation photography"
Numerous examples of that concept are scattered throughout this blog
but I am about to post an example where the original photographer
expressly granted his permission.
Please note: At that time, the 2nd generation photographer
was an infant in the trade, figuratively speaking.
"The victor is Art Aragon and his victim is Danny Downegose."
"Downegose?"
"Down he goes...flat to the mat."
"When did you take this picture?"
"That's a good question."
Art Aragon was the original "Golden Boy" of boxing and a personal friend
of Otto's until Aragon's death in 2008.
Here is an excerpt from his New York Times obituary:
Mr. Aragon, the lightweight and welterweight boxing contender of the 1950s,
was known as Golden Boy for his flamboyant ring presence.
This is an Otto Jensen photo clipped from the internet:
The other man is heavyweight champion Joe Louis.
The original photograph was featured on Otto's wall of fame,
alongside portraits of Phil Silvers, Sammy Davis & Jayne Mansfield.
The wall of fame was behind the office desk of Jensen Studios.
The knock-out photo was on the studio workbench
alongside other photogenic prints about to be re-sold.
Marie Jensen was the only person who could have given accurate information
about the history of each picture her husband photographed. Marie knew where
all the negatives were kept. She knew which photographs were commissioned
and which were taken on spec.
She knew where all the family jewels were hidden.
But at the time Otto and I had the Aragon conversation,
Marie Jensen was asymptotically approaching death. For three years,
she commuted between the Jenson home–adjacent to their studio–
and St. Vincent's Hospital in Burbank.
I could be fashionable and refer to the following as mygreen photograph
but for the defacement of the content,
I am worthy of receiving a migraine headache.
A few years before I re-photographed the black&white print, Marie told me
"That's what Central Park looked like in the winter of 1940.
We shot it with a Brownie 6."
That was the year the Jensens relocated to Burbank.
At some point in the late Nineties, Otto asked me to teach him how to do Sudoku.
I did a lousy job of it, possibly due to being under the influence of Tangueray Gin.
But, undeniably, Otto did a magnificent job of teaching me everything
I ever learned about photography.
On the same day he offered to blow-up my parents,
we settled on a fee for having my vandalized car photographed.
In exchange for his photographing key-scratched
fenders and bumpers--which was to happen four more times,
I made audio tapes of CD's by the likes of Ellington, Brubeck,
Basie & Billie Holiday.
I will end this page with a collage of Otto Jensen's non-vandalism photographs
taken at Jefferson High School.
At least three of my colleagues there posted high-quality reproductions
of this collage in their classrooms.
The singer is Brenton Wood. His most famous songs are
THE OOGUM BOOGUM SONG and GIMME A LITTLE SIGN.
The concert was financed by the Oliverio Donut Fund,
which also filled Otto's gas tank.
The Otto Jensen Tribute continues on this page.
No comments:
Post a Comment