Statesman runs photo of chair on front page
The front page of the Friday, Sept. 20 issue of the Utah Statesman featured a picture of a chair running above the fold, accompanied by the headline “Albrecht to chair committee on University sustainability practices.”
“That’s totally fucking badass,” Statesman editor Randy Neckman said when he saw the picture of the chair, which was upholstered in black leather and dotted, at regular intervals, with small black-leather covered buttons. “On the front page this motherfucking chair picture goes!”
A small portion of Albrecht’s desk was visible in soft focus in the foreground, which photographer Todd Durr said was intentional. “I wanted to illustrate that this is not just any chair, it’s the chair Albrecht sits on when he is at his desk making big, important decisions. The desk gives the viewer the impression that President Albrecht could walk in at any moment, sit in his chair, and begin doing initiatives and stuff.”
“Todd really captured Albrecht’s chair at it’s very essence,” Neckman raved. “It looks so comfortable, with the padded armwrests and all. It is truly the chair of Stan Albrecht, President of Utah State University.”
Durr and the Statesman photo desk have been on a hot streak lately, with Durr’s chair photo following a front page photo of some weight-lifting equipment, which was shot from a dramatic low angle, as if someone could come in and begin working out at any moment. A photo of part of a bicycle accompanied an article about bicycles on Sept. 16 and drew rave reviews.
“I think that will be my legacy here at the Statesman,” Neckman said. “The idea of coupling articles about stuff with pictures of stuff. Like for instance, we recently ran a feature article about a zoo. Todd took a great picture of the sign which stands at the entrance of the zoo. Fucking Amazing.”
Neckman recently assigned Durr to obtain some shots for an upcoming expose on two professors, married to other people, who are carrying on an illicit affair together.
“I am going to shoot a bed,” Durr said. “It won’t be a bed that any actual fucking took place on, but students will get the idea. I am going to rumple the covers in a highly erotic manner, and use some direct lighting to make the bed all shadowy and foreboding.”
Durr said that he was considering shooting a desk, because rumor going round is, the professors fucked in their offices on the surface of their desks all the time. But, then he realized that “the desk idea was a little derivative of my chair photo, which had part of a desk in it. It’s really important to constantly challenge myself if I’m going to grow as a photojournalist and someday take pictures of chairs, desks, cars, signs and other things for a publication like the New York Times or Life magazine.”
dude man….