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Stories IX Stories X
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stevetuba.co.uk
Stories X The Photography Years II A work in progress.
Debbie W... There were civil tensions at my former high school that my sister was attending. It became a daily ritual for me to pick her up and drive her home. So it was that on this summery day, while waiting for my sister to show up, I spot this blond haired girl, in a short dress with a knockout walk, in the rear view mirror, heading my way. She'd just passed my car when my sister shows up. Pointing, I indicated the girl to her and she says that she knows that girl from one of her classes...her name was Debbie, and added that if I was interested, she'd ask her the next day. I was...she did...and she was...interested. I don't remember exactly, but, as was my practice at the time, I would have these girls call me. I would never ask for their numbers, allowing them the option of not calling, as opposed to waiting for a call from a stranger. I explained the deal and we agreed as to a date and time that I'd pick her up. This started a relationship that lasted over five years. Debbie was the best! She had that rare combination of looks, good nature and she was a ham. She also liked to tease and loved the camera. She was very daring, funny and fun to be with! She liked to work at an idea for a shot. One day we got carried away with the lipstick...and soon she had it all over her face like a mask. Outdoors, she'd hang upside down from a tree...at NIGHT! Great fun! I used Debbie for a paying ad the first chance I had. I asked Joe to do her hair...for free...since it would be in the paper.
Over the months there would be more rock groups and more models. Priscilla and I were seeing more and more of each other. At one point I fell in love with her and told her so.
Laurie G... I lived to shoot. Sometimes I'd try the same idea for a shot with different girls as I tried to get it right. By this time I was shooting ads for the Bon Marche and Nordstroms. I'd pick up a armful of cloths and run the girls through them. It was not possible to shoot a given girl at any given time so I was always looking for new girls to fill in my "free time" schedule to improve my portfolio. Priscilla and I would find a new model on the street, in shops, you name it...etc. Interestingly, it was bound to happen that I'd "hit" on an actual working model. She was just walking along downtown Seattle when I spotted her. Marilyn B. She was happy to pose for me. One day I spotted a girl between the racks of clothing while I was picking out the next items I would like to shoot for Nordstroms. Priscilla went over to talk with her. She was on the list. Then, about a week or two later I spot a girl, in another part of town, walking down the opposite side of the street...great walk. We pass her, turned the car around and pull up to the curb next to her. The funny part was that she knew us! She was at Nordstroms the day we'd found her girl friend! She was on the list too. Her name was Laurie G., Laurie was "better" than her girlfriend. She was about 15 at the time.
Glenda P... What can I say? It was summertime and I was driving along Lake Washington. There were a number of bikinis out and about. I spot this girl that looks just like Twiggy! Gads! I pulled over, introduce myself and handed her my card. It would turn out that she'd recognized my name, or at least had suspicions. When she called later that evening, the first thing she asked was if I had a sister going to Franklin High. I did. She was on the list. It was a marvel to watch Glenda evolve. She had a very sweet personality. I loved working with her. One day we ended up at my studio on a non shoot basis. She liked to listen to classical music which I had a great deal of in the form of real-to-real tape. So...anyway...there we were at the studio...just talking and listening to the music. We talked about many things including my problems with Priscilla, (on again...off again) which interested her. We lost track of the time and the next thing we know it's morning. I took her home around 9 or 10 am! The next day, over the telephone she tells me what happened and adds..."It's a good thing you/we didn't do anything last night!" she exclaimed. It appears that the shit had hit the fan and I was about to be arrested (kidding...gads...maybe not)...But she was able to convince her mom that NOTHING had happened...which was true. At this time she was still in school. I was always conscious of the "Jail Bait" factor. This story continues later...
Priscilla H... One day, many months later, it came to a head with her parents (mom and step dad), mostly mom (in her seventh marriage), with whom she was then living. Even though I'd told Priscilla that I was in love with her months before, it had only a minor effect on our relationship. Maybe she'd known it all along. During the fight, which I witnessed, she said to me, to "...take her away from all of this..."...in her usual dramatic style. We left the house to get away and to talk things over. We went to "our" place..."Steve's Broiler" for dinner and talk. The next day we went looking for a house to rent. A short time later, we moved in together. This would be the Phinney Ridge House. The Big Yellow. Corner of 64th and Phinney Avenue.
The house was partly furnished. A bed and a dresser up stairs. Our first day would become our first, "real", night together.
There was a desk and chair in what would become my office. It would take time to furnish the house properly and to set up a studio and a lab in the half basement.
Fisheye shot of the office...available light...
A blowup of the center portion of the same shot...circa 1970. I was happy about the studio but for the fact that it was not as high ceilinged as the old one. Soon after setting up, I began shooting the modeling school students as part of their modeling course. Ten to fifteen girls would show up at a time. It was a money maker. We settled into a routine. A few months pass. The burden of house rent, which was five times more than I had paid for my first studio and food for two, gas, phone and electricity meant working quit hard...shoot shoot shoot, into the lab and get those pints out. Deliver them...etc. Mix chemicals. Sadly, and I don't blame her per se, but Priscilla was not prepared for this life style. She was a free spirit, and thought of herself as a soon to be discovered actress. It was classic stuff. The guy working hard to get a new business off the ground with the "wife" thinking that life is passing her by...God that's funny. The thing was, that had I known that things would turn out the way they did, I'm not sure that I'd have done it differently, Except perhaps the timing. But I guess it took a push to get me into a house so "push me now or push me later!"
Priscilla was quit volatile. And we'd be on again, off again. She'd leave, to only call the next day. I was getting somewhat tired of it, what with all the work I had to do too. I needed all my energy. This was the pattern of our relationship...from the very beginning! It would take me year to figure it out. We were part of a dysfunctional relationship! She'd dish it out and I'd take it. I loved taking it, she loved dishing it out! Perfect! To make a really long story short, one day she hits me with the..."I'm moving back to mom's" line...AND I hit back by helping her to move. The look on her face was priceless. Anyway...done deal...totally alone for real...! GADS! When... An amazing set of circumstances came together. Priscilla leaves for what looks to be for good. Glenda, has been living with a artist in Bellingham and is going through a bit of a crisis...I guess. This artist is a Taurus also!(?) A bit of Freud here? I can only imagine it. She's got this boyfriend, but even though it's been fun, is it the best she can do, is this all there is...etc? So hey...she knows this photographer guy in Seattle, a Taurus...and she did like him a bit...and he liked her a bit. And she was now sexually active and had that to offer, something she couldn't do before. And...There is the old "...if I don't do this now, I may wake up years from now and wonder forever what could have been...? So... Priscilla was gone. We had gotten letters before from Glenda who at the time was living in Bellingham, a small collage town north of Seattle near the Canadian border. In the latest letter to me, she asks if she could come and stay/visit with me for two weeks. HELL yes! As I think back, this was the sweetest thing she was about to do. I know that she had ulterior motives, but none the less she was offering herself to me. A kind of a payback for that thankfully missed opportunity years before. We naturally shot some film. It had been years since we had done that yet we produced some really nice stuff. She went back at the end of two week. Time passes, six years maybe. I was living in a rental in Ballard, a house that Janet McG. had located for us to live in. Short of a year later, Janet returned to California. A bit later the house goes on the market. Wait for it...Who, now a realty agent, should show up to inspect it? Glenda! Strangely, as I recall, we didn't talk that much. I guess we didn't have...WHAT(?)...anything in common any more? I think that today she lives in California...working in realty. "You're only relevant...if and when you're relevant." Tuba, 1944-
Jan M...and Linda F... By this time I was on a first name basis with Saulius Pempe. He was a year or two older than me and Lithuanian. Interestingly, he would ultimately moved into a house just a few houses to the north of me with his girlfriend Theresa M. with studio space right next door to that. Through his extensive contacts I met a number interesting people. Peter R., photographer, was one. Well...he, Peter, had this real knockout girlfriend named Jan. I don't think I knew about this relationship before she'd called me one day to set up an appointment to shoot her. She was with an agency (Lola) at the time but it turned out that she was prepared to pay. This was a bit unusual in that the girls with agencies had portfolios and we would just trade their time for mine with prints going their way...free. I was impressed with her look. She was about 5 ft 11 and uses her body like a dancer. Over the next few months I shot a lot of film of her. She liked my music too and damn if she's not inviting herself over to listen! I turns out that she had been married but was now divorced and a had a little boy. I never did know the real facts about her relationship with Peter. Well...one thing led to another. Peter and I became friends of sorts. He liked my strobe units...particularly the sound they made when fired off. Meanwhile, Jan was looking for a husband! The last I heard, she'd married a doctor I think and had moved to Hawaii.
Linda F... Saulius invited me to some kind of a gathering of photographer as I recall. I guess that it was not all that exciting or interesting or useful, because I remember only two things. One, that I was introduced to a fellow Hungarian...I think, and two, that I was introduced to Linda F. by virtue of her just being there. I remember watching her move around the room in a tight sweater and skirt. She had a nice body with an easy grace. Her hair was in an Afro though she was white, but would later tell me that she was "high yellow" and was interested in black men. Late afternoon, about a week or so later, my doorbell rings. I open the door to find this girl (women...she was older that me.) standing there and vaguely familiar. I must have looked stupid, which wasn't hard. Somehow we got things straightened out. It was Linda from the meeting the other week. I hadn't known her name until she told me. It turned out that she had decided to well...just...hit on me...period. She was divorced with twin girls. We shared photography as a common interest. I showed her my photos and we chatted for hours about the scene, and at one point she expressed a need to get going and concluded by asking if I wanted to spend the night at her place, stipulating that we'd not have sex, just sleep. Hey...I was hip...(Yeah sure!) She lived just a few block from me, so why not? Well...we tried to just sleep...but then one thing led to another. She described herself as a natural woman. We remained friends until she moved. It was Linda that had told me once that she would have sex with a guy at least twice, as in, she'd "do" it once to see and the second time to make sure! I thought it funny and insightful. Anyway...It was this Linda that had move right next door to my high school photography teacher, Mr Petite! At times she'd use my darkroom and a few years later I needed to use hers. Years later I also needed a place to stay, and it just worked out that she need a house sitter for two month while she went to California. This was great, because I needed a place to stay with Janet McG. who had followed me back to Seattle from California (a story to be told later.) It was while at Linda's house that I read J.L. Seagull about two years out of sync. She later married, and moved to California. It's disconcerting to realize that Linda's twins are now older then she was when Linda and I first met. GADS!
Sue A... This story starts out a bit convoluted mostly because I was not in the loop. Events over taking reality. Where to begin? There were subsets to this whole modeling "thing". Some girls (women) did the (modeling) school bit and would then just do casual runway or tea room work. It was a social thing and they'd become friends with the other models and do lunch etc. Some of the women would be it their late twenties to mid thirties, and frankly quite wild! Most were married, or in the process of getting divorced or divorced as opposed to young singles. They had some money...and were looking for some excitement. They were late comers to the sexual revolution. A generation out of sync. They could dress the part, but needed to try the lifestyle to see if IT fit. So it was that after a fashion show a group of them went on a rampage through a building in the Pioneer Square part of downtown Seattle. It was in this very same building that I had clients in the form of entertainment management offices. This rampage was something along the lines of knocking on all the doors, entering the offices...and then running down the hall/stairs...etc. Somewhere along the line...my name comes up. Don't ask...I just don't know. Anyway...phone calls are made and all I hear is giggling and laughter...blah blah blah and do I know these people(?) etc...just silly stuff. There were four in this group (the gang)...Sue A., Dorle H., Lottie T., and Carol A. M., I think. Dorle's story comes a bit later. Lottie T. and Carol A. M. I will later shoot as straight gigs. Sue could have been the ringleader. She will ultimately call to make an appointment. Shows up, and we shoot...the three day plan. She was a very funny person, great fun to be with. She did have sex on the brain though and was not the least bit ashamed to say so. She was going through a divorce and I guess I was...just...there. One thing led to another! We did things that I can only described as extraordinary. Kiss kiss...thanks babe I haven't forgotten. Not long afterwards, she remarries. Time passes.
At this very time I was putting together one hundred prints for a show at the Infinity Gallery located in Pioneer Square, downtown Seattle.
Left: A poster for my show at the Infinity Gallery. The model was Debbie. Right: The "photographer" at the Gallery.
It was a major job getting that many prints ready. Priscilla had moved out but was still on the scene being her dysfunctional self. I was of course shooting gigs at the same time. I wanted more new faces and I spotted a real great face in a group of girls from one of the modeling school classes. Her name was Karol S. I asked her to come back for a private shoot and I'd told her what I wanted in the way of a hair style. She agreed. On the appointed day and hour another girl appears at my door. Gads! I vaguely recognized the girl...oh yeah...same class as Karol's. This was the girl that had this...sandwich board dress for one of her changes. Two strips of cloth, front and back leaving a 4 inch bare gap at the sides which were held together with string. That was a first, as part of a class. Anyway...I then see that Karol is coming up the stairs after all. She explains that they are best friends, hence two for the price of one...as it were! The girl friend's name was Laura M. I end up shooting them both and used the resulting prints in my show. It turns out the two girls were taking photography in school and adopted me as another teacher, I guess, because they started hanging around. I'd take them places...and we'd shoot some film now and then...etc. They would watch me developing film and I would show off the speed with which I could spool a roll of film in a changing bag. "Way cool!" I did find it disconcerting that they would talk about having had sex with an entire high school football team...on the 50 yrd line! I remember asking myself if I was THAT hip or not. I had been taking mental notes on the various seduction techniques used by the girls. Well...There was the old "I don't climax"...(do you want to try?) to going through a divorce, a break up, to...doing the entire football team...as an indication that they were in fact active...and hey...if they were doing the team then you could too, whether true or not. Well... Then one day it happened. It started out as the scene right out of "Blow Up", the two of them.
Karol S. Part of a series.
Dorle H... She calls, set up a shoot, and we shoot. We do this a number times. She had good clothes sense and came up with great items to shoot. Oh! She's German, and had married a US Air Force Captain. She'd told me the story that it was a big deal to marry a "Doctor" back in Germany. So when she married this...this American Air Force Captain...her sisters laughed at her foolishness and looked down on her. Well she had the last laugh since this guy was now a double Ph.D. We went to a number of out of the way places to shoot. The Green River Gorge and Long Beach and Bainbridge Island...to name a few.
Always got good stuff with Dorle, she was very professional when working. I know that she was playing games with me, but I didn't mind. Dorle was also an instructor at one of the modeling schools. And yes...one thing did lead to another but it was not a full blown affair, just goofing around mostly. We remained friends. See Michelle later on.
Sandi T... Sandi was an instructor also. Like Sue and Dorle, Sandi was older than I though she'd never tell me her age. We'd done a shoot or two and we always ended up talking at some length. She was asking for my opinion about her modeling etc. She had been a Stewardess and was living with...a pilot I think it was. One day I was showing her the operation of my darkroom by printing her latest photos while she watched. Rewind. We set up a shoot and did. We began to talk...more like she was asking me all these questions...Hey it worked for her, right? So it was that we'd meet for drinks. Latitude 47 comes to mind. She invited me to go with her to a fashion show she was doing in Bremerton as I recall. We took a ferry boat over, but the show ran late and we missed the ferry coming back and decided to drive around the long way! Anyway...back into the darkroom. As I was saying, she'd follow me up and down the line, print after print, when at one point we bump into each other...like YEAH SURE! It is the way it happened. Sorry babe...but I now don't remember what happened next. Yes..yes...I know...one thing did led to another...but I just can't remember if it was at my place or yours...the first time? You were GREAT! Fantastic body! You know that I was in love with you...but you were smart enough to know better for the both of us. Thanks. You are etched in my mind.
Continued:
Copyright © Steve Tuba 2008. Photography Copyright © Steve Tuba 1999-2008.
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I
was glad to get her in the papers. She was my faithful friend and one
of my favorite models. I was "with" Priscilla on and off
for most of the time we worked together so I didn't allow anything
serious to develop between us. Only at the very end did I sense that
something along the lines of what will happen later with Glenda, was
happening to Debbie. I would have taken her up on it...given a
chance. However, her friendship meant more to me that my sexual urges
and I thought that an all out sexual relationship would ruin things.
On the other hand, this was out of character for the times. Yet as I
said, given the same scenario as Glenda's i.e. no strings
attached...well...it would have been fun and brought a sense of
closure. I will say that there was an incident or two, early on, that
could have led down a totally different path and I do remember
them...Debbie XX. 
She
ultimatly married a carpenter I believe. I would like to think that
she has fond memories of those days.
Laurie
G. 
Jan
M. 4x5 Polaroid. Soft focus lens by Tuba.
I
had had other prints in shows before, but up until now, this was the
big one. I personally knew a number of the photographers on the list
above. Gustafson (SPS), Marts, Meuss (Boeing Camera Club), Richards
(SPS), Riches, Schwartz (SPS), Temple (went to high school together),
S. Wilson and Arlie Toulouse (SPS). In a way they all played some
role in my career. I'll think about some stories to tell. Steve Marts
would go on to do a film about the 1982 assault on Mt
Everest..."Everest North Wall" to name just one of many.
