“You want to take more photos, haven’t you taken enough already?” And so, my shoot with John Kasmin or “Kas” as he prefers to be called continues in a similar vein. Admittedly I’ve been commissioned by Newsweek as both a photographer and an editor, to go through his many thousands of rare and unusual postcards, photograph 20 or so and get some great portraits of the man.
That man, Kas has worked in the art world for many years, initially representing artists like David Hockney and Anthony Caro. Born in 1935, he’s now in his 80’s and over the past few years has started collecting postcards, most are of the photographic ilk although we started going through one of his advertising books as well, that was brought to a swift stop as time was pressing. The writer pointing at his watch and rolling his eyes…no that might have been me actually.
Okay I might have pulled a few animal themed postcards, as though the #furries have entered my subconscious ( no surprises there then), on the whole though it was a case of letting Kas direct us to his favourites and stopping him when my gaze fell on a particularly striking image.
After one of the most fascinating editing sessions I’ve had in a while, there’s nothing quite like working with physical objects, as opposed to digital images for a change. We shot portraits of Kas, some at his desk and a few more on his reading chair in his office. 
How many photographers does it take to change a lightbulb? Just one more
The article is in Newsweek’s European edition, out now
Tom, I loved the Newsweek piece then found this link by chance and forwarded it to Kas who was very amused. The photos really capture his infectious enthusiasm. Thanks and cheers, Melanie (Kas’ niece and regular traveling companion)
Hi Melanie, superb stuff. Glad you both like the images. It was lovely meeting Kas and photographing him and his collection. Thanks for getting in touch! Cheers, Tom