Hardcover in dustjacket. 13 x 10 ½, 116 pages. From the limited first edition of 4000 copies, lacking slipcover. Very light wear to jacket edges, near very fine.
From Van Sant's introduction: "The faces in this book were originally Polaroids used to cast the movies I've made. Beginning with my film MALA NOCHE, I took the pictures of the lead actors, so that when planning the details of the shoot I could stare at the pictures and imagine the characters coming to life, and how they might visually relate to one another. As my films grew larger and when I started to get more money to make them, I used the Polaroids of the faces to do the initial casting. I think that the bulk of these pictures are people that I had a meeting with about playing a part in either DRUGSTORE COWBOY or MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO. These were taken in casting sessions. During the casting sessions, the actor or actress would come in to talk with me or the producers or the film executives on the project. Generally they would read or act out a section of the script and then we would usually chat about something, like I remember during DRUGSTORE COWBOY (it was an active earthquake here and the casting office was in a high rise) we could talk about how stupid it was to be so high up in a building 16 floors for an earthquake or perhaps maybe the building was safer than most places. Everyone had their earthquake expertise, because nobody really quite knew what would happen to us when we were in a really bad earthquake. After we talked about something innocuous and removed from the task at hand, like earthquakes, I would generally grab my camera which was sitting in front of me (I actually sort of hid behind it, it was so big) and I would ask, can I take a picture of you and every time I ask, so far, people have said yes. I always thought they were nice to agree, because they weren't necessarily prepared or anything like that. But it's more that it's possible they are used to a lot more unusual demands during casting sessions. I began collecting the negatives from these pictures (Polaroid makes a black and white film that produces a negative at the same time as the instant picture) with an idea to later make blowups, but it took five years before I decided to do anything with the pictures."
Hardcover in dustjacket. 13 x 10 ½, 116 pages. From the limited first edition of 4000 copies, lacking slipcover. Very light wear to jacket edges, near very fine.
From Van Sant's introduction: "The faces in this book were originally Polaroids used to cast the movies I've made. Beginning with my film MALA NOCHE, I took the pictures of the lead actors, so that when planning the details of the shoot I could stare at the pictures and imagine the characters coming to life, and how they might visually relate to one another. As my films grew larger and when I started to get more money to make them, I used the Polaroids of the faces to do the initial casting. I think that the bulk of these pictures are people that I had a meeting with about playing a part in either DRUGSTORE COWBOY or MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO. These were taken in casting sessions. During the casting sessions, the actor or actress would come in to talk with me or the producers or the film executives on the project. Generally they would read or act out a section of the script and then we would usually chat about something, like I remember during DRUGSTORE COWBOY (it was an active earthquake here and the casting office was in a high rise) we could talk about how stupid it was to be so high up in a building 16 floors for an earthquake or perhaps maybe the building was safer than most places. Everyone had their earthquake expertise, because nobody really quite knew what would happen to us when we were in a really bad earthquake. After we talked about something innocuous and removed from the task at hand, like earthquakes, I would generally grab my camera which was sitting in front of me (I actually sort of hid behind it, it was so big) and I would ask, can I take a picture of you and every time I ask, so far, people have said yes. I always thought they were nice to agree, because they weren't necessarily prepared or anything like that. But it's more that it's possible they are used to a lot more unusual demands during casting sessions. I began collecting the negatives from these pictures (Polaroid makes a black and white film that produces a negative at the same time as the instant picture) with an idea to later make blowups, but it took five years before I decided to do anything with the pictures."