Joy Behar & Sussie Essman (1988)

Savvy Magazine was the brainchild of Judy Child and promised to be THE “magazine for executive women.” I got an assignment from them in 1988 to photograph two young women comedians: Susie Essman & Joy Bahar. The bottom line for being a comedian is being wickedly funny. Both Susie & Joy were certainly that. They were good friends and I can’t remember if I saw them perform or it was just hanging out, but I remember laughing really hard.

It looks like I photographed Joy in her bedroom and took Susie to the middle of Fifth Avenue at night in front of the Met Museum. I can’t imagine how we handled traffic with cars buzzing right by her. Both Susie and Joy are incredibly special. It was so clear even this early in their careers. So happy to see how their careers have evolved.

Photographing successful women in that time was hard. All kinds of messages could be sent out if you got it wrong and there didn’t seem to be a lot of tolerance. If they were too sexy…too masculine…too FEMININE! There were all kinds of landmines waiting to mess it all up.

I once photographed Cathy Black who was publisher of USA Today - a huge position. It was a profile for Fortune and a really big deal since women were rarely profiled in Fortune.I did a full length shot in her power office looking down Madison Avenue. What I didn’t think about was how great Cathy’s legs were. I have never been a “leg man” and it honestly didn’t even occur to me. That photo became a big scandal just because of her legs. Years later Cathy went onto an even bigger job as chairman of Hearst Publishing - where I photographed her and she forgave me