Below are some of Richard's memories, in his own words, of the most exciting and memorable shoots of his remarkable career.

My First Time

Of course, I guess the first memorable moment has to be the first time I actually picked up a camera and looked at a professional model through the lens. I was a model at the time and on a fashion shoot in the Andes Mountains in Venezuela. I had just finished doing my shoot for the day with one of the female models. They told us we had a couple of hours to hang out until they finished shooting the other models, so we decided to take a walk. 

She turned to me and asked if I would take a picture of her, as she held out her own Canon camera to me. It was the fist time I had looked through the camera at a professional model, and the moment was magical for me, almost as if stories began to unfold before my eyes. Immediately, I was talking to her through the camera, through my passion, my voice, through the clicking of the images. 

I felt her respond and, by nothing more than instinct, I guided her through the shoot, even adding some local Indian children into the picture. After the magic of that moment, I knew I was hooked on the idea of capturing images — of capturing and telling stories through the camera.

Vegas in the Air

The first one that jumps to mind is a shoot I did in Las Vegas for Steve Wynn. I had to get a shot from a particular vantage point that included one of Steve’s buildings with the Vegas Strip behind it at night. As the art director was explaining the shot, I couldn't help but look around and wonder out loud, "How? I don't see any direct vantage point to shoot from?" "Ah yes," he said, "that's where the helicopter comes in!" Before I knew it, I was boarding a helicopter and being strapped into a harness. I found myself checking the harness so many times I felt like Jack Nicholson's character in As Good As It Gets. At around 1,000 feet over Vegas, I decided to try my mom on my cell phone and clue her in on what I was about to do.

Next thing I knew, I was out the sliding door of the helicopter, my feet bracing along the rudders below, and I tried to steady my nerves and push myself out the door. There was one last moment of hesitation as I tried to remember if I had checked the safety of the harness enough times, and then I was out. The harness pulled tight, and I was safe. "Wow!" was all I could think as I caught my breath and marveled at the sight below. Despite the wind beating at my face, the breathtaking sight of Vegas from above immediately overwhelmed me. 

I was lost, as if swimming in the blackness of the night, and yet all I could see were the beautiful lights of the city below and the dazzling splendor of the Vegas Strip. Quickly composing myself, I attached a gyroscope to the camera's body — a magnificent piece of engineering genius that spins at some insane number of thousands of revolutions per second to help steady the camera. And then, like everything else that turns out to be exciting and fun, it was over way too soon. In no time, we were back on the ground and I was begging to do it again!

Martin Scorsese

I have always been a huge fan of his movies, from Raging Bull to Taxi Driver and Goodfellas. The list goes on and on. It was amazing to speak with him, and I was immediately overwhelmed at the speed and intensity at which words seemed to effortlessly fly from his mouth. He was like the speed talker of all time. 

Then, when I looked through the camera, I was taken aback by another thought: "How does anyone have eyebrows that grow quite like that?" Scorsese's eyebrows were bushy to the extent that they seemed to have a life and a mission all their own! Trump may have his hair, but Scorsese has his brows!

Photography As Art

Another memorable moment was when Playboy called me up to ask if they could interview me about a fashion campaign I had just shot that was an homage to the classic and timeless images of the "Vargas Girl" paintings by Alberto Vargas. When I had researched Vargas' work of the 1930s-1950s, I found that he had typically sketched and then painted his models with watercolors naked first until he had them perfect. He would later paint on the clothes, which gave the paintings a unique look.

In an attempt to follow the Vargas style as an homage to his art, I decided, with the help of my art director on the project, Scott Cimock, to photograph the models naked first.  Later, we created the look of the clothing using sheer materials on stands in the studio and essentially painted the clothes onto the models with a computer. 

As I walked into the New York offices of Playboy for my interview, I was taken aback to find their walls covered in original Vargas watercolor paintings. They were everywhere. There was the occasional Leroy Nieman in a conference room, but the walls of Playboy are lined with Vargas. So when the reporter said to me, "We have seen Vargas imitated thousands upon thousands of times, but you are the first to have captured him right," I was overwhelmed by the compliment. I did not walk out of there with Carmen Electra's phone number, as I had hoped, but I did walk out with an amazing compliment.

The Cover Shot Pilot

Another memorable photo shoot was the pilot for Cover Shot. Being a fashion advertising photographer, I am used to dealing on shoots with models, and top models at that. Thus, the concept behind Cover Shot is interesting, intriguing and yet very atypical for any photographer in the business. 

To take a normal, non-model woman, and within 48 hours, understand her, make her over, come up with a cool photo-shoot concept, and then make it all come together with top hair, makeup and styling is very complicated. On top of all that, to find the unique combination of that individual's talent, heart and passion and capture it in the camera was definitely a challenge.

It was amazing to see all the elements fall into place for the shoot — first the hair, then the makeup, and then the perfect outfit. At each stage, I felt a real moment when I saw the difference in our subject. That same feeling continued through the different stages of photographing her on set. 

Each time I felt I had gotten everything possible out of photographing the model, she had another breakthrough and went to a higher level until we had an amazing, honest moment of beauty captured. In the end, when I watched her surprise and response of tears mixed with joy as she saw the final shot, I felt such a fun feeling of satisfaction well up within me.