I am immortal...

Writing at the close of my 48th September and having just completed an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s THE MORTAL IMMORTAL, (and Somerset Maugham’s RAIN) means that the theme of Immortality (and by extension, Mortality) is in the air.

A few weeks ago I was asked to sit for photographer Gonzalo Puertas here in Madrid. Click HERE and check out what THIS guy can do!

I was having serious childhood flashbacks sitting in Gonzalo’s chair, to the days when Ed Tooks, my own photographer/father used to sit me under hot lights, and let me hang out in his darkroom. To this day I recall the smell of developer and hypo/fixer with nostalgia. “Photography is writing with light,” he would whisper, bathed in the glow of an infrared lamp. More musings about my pop, HERE.

Above, The Bronx, NY 1966... I was 3. I wish I had the photo I snapped of him while he was snapping this one of me.
Below, Laurelton, NY 1978... we took a few shots on a Sunday just to have something to work on that day. Tookses never rest on Sundays.
I developed this one myself.

Manhattan, 1980... behind my barely visible desk at Marvel Comics. Photo by Eliot R. Brown

Manhattan Loft, 1982... shooting an independent film with friends. Photo by Kevin J. Taylor. More Tales From the Old Movie Star's Home HERE.

Greenwich Village Rooftop, 1992... a momentary repast from rowing away in an animator's galley. Photo by Geoffrey Johnson

Madrid, Spain 2007... in a bar in Huertas among a talented group of expat writers. Photo by Jose Grillo

I'll leave the profound musings to Mary Shelley... and I'll take a moment to appreciate the many gifted "Light-Writers" that I've known and been inspired by.

And so are you.
Lance Tooks