Anthony Barboza, Grace Jones, c. 1970

Anthony Barboza: When I started studying the portraiture I found that Irving Penn would put his people in the corner and see how they react. 

Narrator: Anthony Barboza took all kinds of photographs, but became especially well known for portraiture. Here, he’s documented a session with the performer Grace Jones.

Anthony Barboza: [Richard] Avedon would try to get the quirky looks out of their expressions. I decided I would just feel them and I would create the background or the lighting right there and then. I was not going to put them in situations like that. You be you and I’ll be me. And we’ll take this photo. 

There’s certain little entities in an image that says something beyond the image. And usually that comes from the photographer and their sense and their doing certain things through the years, their growth. You’re taking a photograph of how you think and feel. And that comes through in the photograph.