- Pago 6 Daily Nebraskan Supplement Monday, March 16
WMmsic&l pcosess eleraes to tag lawfly
By Scott Harrah
Senior Editor
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He goes by one name only. Lumir. But such a short moniker means a lot to the
models he photographs it means photos free of structure and conven
tional poses.
Ask any of his customers what thev like best about his work and
they'll probably tell you it's his sense of spontaneity and his ability to
capture the unrehearsed moment and make it into something
intriguing.
But what does he find most interesting about his work? The
Concentration and creativity fashion nhfifnuranhv Hpmanriv
"I enjoy fashion photography because you've got to work for it," he
says. "You get to make the picture." '
He hardly fits the image of the stereotypical fashion photographer. llex
doesn't wear a silk scarf around his neck or call his models "dahling." In
fact, he wasn't even interested in fashion when he first started taking
photos for the military in World War II.
Lumir attended art school in Los Angeles afterward and then moved back
to his hometown, Omaha. He covered graduations for a while and did portrait
phctos, but was offered a job shooting models for a Brandeis catalog and soon
discovered that fashion photography was his true niche. But, he says, a woman
must have an innate talent for modeling to make everything work for him.
""Models are born you can't make them," he explains. "Some girls are like a
sack of potatoes because no matter what you do with them, they still look
awkward.
And what makes a good model even better?
"Make up does it," he says of his best subjects. "Hair-dos, a lot of jewelry and anybody's
gonna' look good."
Lumir's forte is the unusual backgrounds and venues in which he takes his photos.
"I want to go down to the freightyard in the spring and get some shots of models weal
ing fancy clothes while they hang out in boxcars," he laughs. "1 also wanna' shoot some
models on one of the overpasses on the Interstate some night."
His plans include shooting some photos for posters and traveling to Europe to inter
view and photograph hookers for a photobook on the prostitutes of the world. i
"I want to do a photographic essay book, but there's too many of them that deal with
nature, scenery shots, the birds and the bees I mean, who cares?" he says.
"I wanna' instead do one of the fashionwear of the hookers of the world because
everywhere you go it would probably be different." I
Currently, he's been: experimenting with -photos of models and maraschino cherries. I
He attaches a string td the cherries and dangles them above models tongues for a J
hilariously offbeat effect.
One of his latest projects dealt with a $100 bill and a model wearing spiked-heeled
shoes. He stuck the large bill between her toes and took various shots of her sticking
her foot between the headboard of a brass bed.
Lumir creates such visual whimsy in the studio above his home, a flamboyant men
agene ot photo-plastered walls, wigforms, mannequins, birdcages and backdrops.
Sitting in the middle of his studio is a cylinder-shaped chair that's painted a day
glo orange and covered with paisley designs.
"See this?" he says. "This used to be one of those cylinders construction workers use
when they lay the foundations of buildings."
Costumes and his own imagination often help him use mundane objects in an
innovative manner. One of his basic props is a backdrop covered with imitation bricks.
For model Maureen Evans-Hansen, those bricks bring back some waclcy memories of
a photo session she once had with Lumir.
"We created a seedy alley scene and I played a bag lady hooker," she explains with a
giggle, pointing to a photo of her on the wall. In it, she wears a pair of jeans with slits t
cut out of both sides of the legs, allowing lots of skin and sleaze to show as she drinks
a bottle ol booze and sprawls out on top of a garbage can.
Such photos are the kind Lumir loves best, but he also takes more serious shots of
bands, comedians and business people for public relations agencies.
And, of course, he still takes some portrait photos and model composites.
How much for all this?
"My prices start at around 50 bucks or so," he says.
That's a small amount to pay for the talents of a man who can make anybody look
weird, glamorous, serious, or in the case of Evans-Hansen like a bag lady hooker
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Photo Courtesy of Lumir
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