I Like to Tell Stories  Q&A with photographer Jonathan Saunders
Ever wonder who gets the killer job of globe-trotting and “shooting” celebrities, models, & rock stars.  NYC-based photographer Jonathan Saunder's first-rate portfolio includes a diverse cast of personalities including George Carlin, Dewey Redman, Don Imus, Bill Gates, Chubby Checkers, Michael Bloomberg, and even Tommy Conwell.  “The more I befriend someone as I photograph, the better. I want my subjects to remember the entire process as positively as they can,” states Saunders.  Checkout Jonathan's blog, I Like To Tell Stories.

Photo by Jonathan Saunders
Tell me your story photographing Tommy Conwell
I photographed Tommy for the Philadelphia Magazine music issue. I also shot Chubby Checker and Schoolly D for the same issue. The idea the magazine had was to photograph these Philadelphia music legends at one of their favorite spots around the city. Unbelievably, I cannot find my notes on which diner this is, but we shot Tommy at a diner of his choosing, we just kinda showed up and they let us shoot, lights and all, it was wonderful. We picked a booth, set up and started shooting while Tommy told me and my assistant about performing, being a radio host, and diner stories. It was a really good time and Tommy was cool to photograph.
Any funny celebrity stories?
I photographed George Carlin just a couple short years ago, so that one is on my mind lately.  I set up hours early and waited for him to arrive in the hotel suite. I left the door closed before he arrived, I wanted to see Carlin through the peephole. He was just like you would of expected, only kinder and happier. He went into a rant about HAIR CARE products when I asked him to take his hat off, that then descended into a wonderful moment of both of us yelling the F bomb back and forth at each other till I blew the circuits to that half of our hotel room. Thankfully, I had a second shot ready to go, it was a better photograph anyway. I am so happy I blew those circuits or the best image of the day never would have happened.

Photo by Jonathan Saunders
How do you try to "connect" with your subjects?
Connecting is tricky, I usually get so little time. Thanks to Google, I just try and read up and find out how as much as I can or find some detail I can relate to so I discuss or talk to them on a more familiar level then two strangers would. I think it helps as celebrity or not, people are people and they will trust you or otherwise be more comfortable with you if you connected about some detail in their life or shown a genuine interest in what they do and why you are there to photograph them. The more you befriend someone as you photograph, the better. I want my subjects to remember the entire process as positively as they can. So really I just try to be myself as much as I can, people can tell if you're up to something odd or don't care, so no reason to not be yourself and have fun.
Any advice for a career in photography?
Not to be too jaded or anything, but if I had to do it again, I would find a job that paid well so I could afford to do nothing but work on my own work in my own time. I love being a photographer but it is a long, weird and sometimes scary roller coaster. The best highs of my life and the worst lows, all rolled into one.

"Tommy used to work here (Ranch House in Delaware).  Flipping burgers and scrambling eggs for the late-night crowd, he wrote songs like "Walkin' on the Water" in his spare time and daydreamed of what was to come.  Like every young guitar slinger, Conwell dreamed of becoming a rock star, rich, respected, and cool.  Not for a second did he imagine himself hanging out at the diner a dozen years later, a man who actually got everything he dreamed of and let it go...............It's well past 3am and the eggs and scrapple are long gone.  Tommy goes dutch on the bill and rises to leave.  A man whose fifteen minutes are up but whose coolness is genuine."  Out & About Magazine 1997