Hi, this is E-Bari and X and welcome to The Candid Frame.

With the release of the film blowup in 1966, every person with a camera wanted to be a fashion photographer like David Bailey.

In the 70s and 80s, the dream for many was to be the adventurous and charismatic photojournalists,

traveling around all the hotspots in the world.

Today, our fixation is on celebrities, and the photographers who sometimes become famous themselves

for photographing them.

Michael Greco has produced work in all these genres, as well as producing and directing movies.

He's known not only for his iconic imagery, but also his mastery of light, and the ability to solicit the unexpected from his subjects.

As I sat down to talk to him, one of the first questions I wanted to ask him was about his youth,

and whether he was born with the gift of gab or whether the camera was the means by which he

overcame awkwardness and insecurity.

I mean, for me, it was like it was neither.

I have actually used, I actually used to be a little, you know, just rough.

Like I didn't grow up in a very sophisticated family and very sort of working class Italian,

even though we grew up in a middle class and eventually a little bit of an upper middle class lifestyle.

My parents were still sort of working class Italians grew up in the city,

you know, and so no, this has been part of my learning experience, like refining myself,

getting better at being comfortable with people. Learning to communicate has been part of my journey. So no, I was not the smooth-talking,

you know, celebrity portrait photographer or advertising photographer handling 20 clients on the set.

Now I love it. I love it as both a challenge and I love it as both sort of negotiation and making it work and all that other stuff.

But it wasn't me.

It's been part of my learning experience.

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