(Me and Crispin at The Met in 2017)

In 2007 I met some guys who were studying film and journalism at CU Boulder. They all lived together in the house that Stephen King lived in while he wrote The Shining (no joke). A lot of that year was a blur. We partied a lot, ate a lot of pizza, and lost a lot of money on scratch tickets. But in between we took photos, made super 8 films, wrote, read, and watched a lot of movies.

Before then, my exposure to movies was limited to main stream horror and comedies. Now I was being introduced to Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Susperia, Opera, Repo Man, Gummo, Suburbia, Even Dwarfs Started Small, and basically every Troma Film we could get our hands on.

On April 21st, 2008 Crispin Glover was screening his directorial debut, What Is It? at Starz Film Center (RIP) in Denver, so a few of us went (mostly because we were obsessed with his record, The Big Problem ≠ The Solution. The Solution = Let It Be). I really only knew Crispin from Back To the Future and Willard, but after seeing What Is It? and buying some of his books, I quickly dove into Cripsin’s filmography and loved just about everything. River’s Edge had quite the impact on me. Nothing that happens in the film is specifically reminiscent of any experience I had in high school, but it was the first one I saw as an adult that made me feel something. It’s dark and strange, but familiar and funny and made me want to make art.

(Me (with a mohawk) with friends and Crispin at 2008 Screening of What Is It?)

After the 2008 school year, everyone moved out of the Stephen King house and spread out. I finally moved out of my parent's house and into a place in Denver (another influential time for different reasons). We all stayed close until moving to different states and countries.  Even though we were all separated, we shared a lot of memories from those years and I know that house is important to everyone who hung out there.

I have a list of a few people I’d like to photograph before they (or I) die. Crispin has been number one on this list because it felt like the most realistic one. I recently attended  a talk by a photographer who has been shooting celebrities for over 30 years. He explained that he used to simply ask subjects coming to town if he could shoot their portrait. This was probably much easier in the 1980’s when publicists weren’t as involved as they are today. Conveniently, Crispin does his own publicity, so I emailed the address on his website explaining what I wanted to do, and he replied with interest.

Crispin was going to be in New York and Pennsylvania in late June showing his films and I explained that this would be a great opportunity to promote his shows. So, I drove to the Midtown Cinema in Harrisburg to meet before his first showing. We shot some quick portraits and talked about the slideshow he performs before each screening (arguably the most interesting part of the evening). He told me that his favorite thing to do when he visits New York is to go to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Naturally, I asked if he would be interested in shooting there and he loved the idea. After convincing The Met to let us visit after hours, Crispin and I arrived to look at some art a few days later.

The hours that we spent (literally) running around the museum felt like a dream. He was excited and basically took control asking me, “What about here?” or saying, “Oh! This is a cool room we should shoot in here!” “This is going to be so great! I really like this idea of me being in an empty museum!”

After a few hours, we slowed down to chat. It all hit me pretty hard sitting down in the Great Hall talking about films and art with someone who had a pretty big impact on my life 10 years ago. We walked to Candle Cafe where Crispin was meeting a friend and I told him how his films influenced me. He told me that it all made sense that those films could be influential on an 18-year-old kid studying art. We said our goodbyes in a very Crispin Glover sort of formal way.

Vice loved the idea of us hanging out at the museum and graciously published the photos. But here’s a few outtakes and some from our portrait session in Harrisburg.

Crispin Glover photographed in Harrisburg, PA in June 2017