MARCIA RESNICK
— In early September 1981 I spotted John Belushi in the New York after hours club AM PM. I asked him when he was going to do a photo session with me for my series Bad Boys: A Compendium of Punks, Poets and Politicians. He said, “Now”. I didn’t believe him, until upon returning home at six am I saw a limousine waiting in front of my building. I turned on the music as John and his entourage filed into my loft. I then directed John to an area lit by strobe lights and I began shooting.
John paced around like a caged animal, fidgeting incessantly. He seemed unable to sit still for my camera, uncanny for someone known for being deliberate and fluid when performing. “Where are the props?”, he queried. I first gave him sunglasses, then a scarf. He requested a beer, then a glass. After donning a black wool ski mask that he took off a nearby mannequin, he settled into a chair. Only his eyes and mouth peeked through the openings in the mask. The large, ominous and anonymous ‘executioner’ had finally reached his comfort zone.
Marcia Resnick is a New York City photographer and educator. She is an alumnus of the Cooper Union and California Institute of the Arts. Her images have been shown internationally in galleries and appear in many major museum collections. Her work has been published in numerous counterculture periodicals, from THE PARIS REVIEW to ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE, self-published artist’s books and an autobiography in photographs, RE-VISIONS. Her confrontational images explore aggression, fame and sexuality while echoing the primordial audacity of punk music and punk style.