A wall of laughter: Edie Baskin talks about photographing the first 25 years of Saturday Night Live | Interviews

On October 11, 1975, the first episode of “Saturday Night Live” aired on NBC, and the opening credits featured a series of photos of Manhattan taken by model-turned-photographer (and my cousin) Edie Baskin. She was the show’s sole photographer for its first 25 years, and her now-iconic images of the cast and hosts, enhanced by hand-drawn color graphics, served as “bumper” photos between commercials and the broadcast.

These photos of luminaries, including Steve Martin, Burt Reynolds, Carrie Fisher, the Rolling Stones, Lily Tomlin and ultimately “The Not Ready for Prime Time” players John Belushi, Gilda Radner and Dan Aykroyd, have now been collected into a book titled Live from my studio: the art of Edie Baskinpublished by Simon & Schuster Books.

In an interview, she tells us how she got the job and her technical development.

How did you become interested in enriching photographs with color and adding graphic elements?

A few people did it at the time. Jean Pagliuso and Benno Friedman proceeded a little differently. I had a boyfriend and we went on a cross-country trip. One of the places we went to was Las Vegas. I loved the photos of Las Vegas, so I decided to add some color there, and then in other photos, photos I had taken of some cows.

What do you use? Paint? Pencils?

Yes, Marshall photo oils, pencil sets, chalks, everything that makes color.

When you add color to a black and white photo, what does this interaction mean to you??

I would love to see it turn into something I made.

How did you get involved?

I met Lorne Michaels at a poker game at Chateau Marmont. And we were just a group hanging out and we went to Las Vegas together. We were just a group of kids. And then I went back to New York. I had lived there before, but was taking a little break.

He did a Lily Tomlin special. And he hired me for it because we were friends. It was like, “Let’s put on a show in the barnyard.” Only Lorne had a real job. I went back to New York and Lorne knew I was there. So he called me and told me he had a late night TV show. And he was coming back to New York and he said, “Let’s hang in there.” »

I invited him to come to my loft, where I did my own photography work. And I asked him to come see my work. I was very proud of my photos. He liked these and the photos from my trip across the country, and he asked if I could do the same for New York at night. I said, “Yes, I’m sure I could.” “I did that, and then I got called to NBC to show some creatives there, and they liked it. So, I went out into the street to shoot the title sequence, and that became the opening credits.

The bumpers started from the second show. I was friends with Paul Simon, and I introduced Paul and Lorne, and they quickly became friends. So Paul did the second show, and I took a picture of him standing by a piano and tinted it. And I used it as a bumper.

What has your experience as a model taught you about interacting with the subjects of your photos?

I always try to make people comfortable and welcome.

I’m going to ask you about some of the images in the book that I thought represented a range worth discussing. Let’s start with Paula Prentiss and Richard Benjamin, actors who were and still are married. You really captured their chemistry.

They were really good together, very happy together and alive together.

Talking heads. It was one of the most subtle in terms of additions to the image, almost like sepia, a very light touch.

I didn’t make a conscious decision. It was what I was doing at the time and how I grew up, how I moved in and out of different things. And that was pretty much what I was doing at the time. I doodled her blouse. I added a little skin color. This was at the time when I was just starting to work on skin color.

Your portrayal of Teri Garr is much more alive, truly expressing her dynamism.

It’s one of my all-time favorites, and she said she loves them all. Teri was a friend of mine. We were in dance class together and I’ve known her my whole life.

And you donated some of the originals to UCLA.

A series of my hand painted works. Yes, I call it my laugh wall.