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Photography and Text by Tony Ward, Copyright 2017
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A CHANCE MEETING WITH J. ALEXANDER
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I first met J Alexander at Elite Model Agency in Paris in the Spring of 1994 during one of my many visits to Paris during that time period. While I was waiting in the lobby of the agency to meet with a booker to arrange test shoots with models, J walked in wearing all black. He happened to be visiting the agency at the same time and we struck up a conversation while waiting for our appointments. I had a sampling of my work with me and he glanced over my shoulder to gaze and offered a few compliments about the pictures. I was already familiar with his work as a model trainer, as he was already appearing on various fashion related television programs in the states, so I recognized him right away.
We exchanged contact information and a few days later he invited me to his apartment in Les Halles where we had lunch to further discuss the fashion business and how we might collaborate in some way. J. mentioned that he would be in the states relatively soon, so we agreed to meet up again once he arrived state side. During one of his trips to New York, I invited him down to Philly to train a few models from one of the Philly agencies I was working with. It was the first time that I saw J. work with an aspiring cat walker and I was quite impressed with his grace and delicacy in handling fragile model egos.
While I was working on the production of the book of Tableaux Vivants, I asked J. to model in a scene to be staged at a friend’s apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The title of the picture is “Center of Attention”.
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To see more pictures from the book of Tableaux Vivants, go here: https://tonyward.com/early-work/tableaux-vivants-1993-2000/