The Bald and the Beautiful with Trixie and Katya - Just Looking For JTT with Franz Szony

Episode Date: December 22, 2020

Photographer Franz Szony joins Trixie and Katya to delve into his surrealist portraits that mix glamor with dreamlike visuals.  Franz explains the creative process behind his unique style that includes everything from eye-popping colors to crowns of penises.  Also, Katya wants Franz to photograph her wake. To follow Franz Szony: @FranzSzony To follow Trixie: @TrixieMattel To follow Katya: @Katya_Zamo To listen to our podcast on YouTube: http://bit.ly/TBATBYT Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Eligibility and member terms apply. Welcome back to another lovely episode of The Bald and the Beautiful. Welcome, everyone. Welcome. Welcome in. Hope you're having a lovely night. How have you been going? That was two different things.

That was clapping and sad noise. Oh, I love that that that's good a bittersweet energy to start off our podcast and we have a very natural guest for us one of our favorite people close friend yep one of our favorite people in the world also um someone with whom we've had the pleasure of working who also happens to be, in my humble estimation, one of the best living photographers on the planet Earth.

I'm talking about David LaChapelle. Just kidding. Annie Leibovitz is here. We have the wonderful Franz. Franz. Hi.

Is it Zony? It's Zony. The S is silent. Zony. Or if you're Hungarian, it's Czony. Czony. Yeah. S-Z is a Czech.

So it's Hungarian. Yeah. Okay. Czech and Hungarian. Czech and Hungarian. Yeah. Have you been to Czech Republic? No.

I've been a lot of places, but I haven't been there. I hear that it's a beautiful place but very sadly run down it's not like a touristy place that's been upkept it's like sad i went there for the first time earlier this year and right before lockdown and it's it's beautiful the prague prague was beautiful yeah but it was um uh small yeah it's very you can walk you're gonna walk from one side to the other and you hear that your shit was small tiny unimpressed significant now i feel like photographers have this sort of willing identity crisis because it's one of those things where people have probably seen your work but they see the subject and they don't see you yeah so what

would people know you from besides that welcome to all production gosh the people that make everything are like totally unsung 100 yeah like albert like a lot of my favorite people are photographers yeah yeah and it's this meditating thing where they just shoot the picture and let the picture be and slip away into the shadows yeah yeah i like doing that but um what was the question i'm sorry how would people you've shot both of us what would they know you from uh well um oh god that's a that's a lengthy question i don't well i shoot dita von teese a lot i'm lucky to shoot her i i like shooting drag queens a lot i think i i've been in los angeles for about eight years and um the first person well the first person i ever reached out to when i moved here was Devon Green, drag queen. Drag queen.

Because I saw her, you know, welcome to my Vagine video, iconic. And I said, I have to know her. And the first real drag queen that I shot was Sutan Maharaja. Oh my God, with the paper and the jewels. That picture is so cool. Thank you for that. Yeah, I was super broke and I was kind of going through like,

I just happened, super broke, but a whole box of Swarovski crystals. So I was like, what can I do with like paper and crystals? And he was so lovely. I just reached out to him and said, I'm a big nobody. I just moved here.

And can I shoot your portrait? And not only can I shoot your portrait, but like, let's do this, like finger mustaches, the Maharaja. And he was like was like great what time do you want me to come over and um so that kind of you know uh kind of every at least for me every shoot kind of leads to the next shoot and snowballs but um uh yeah so that's that's what i should dishwasher i have oh yeah i have a million questions but i i don't want to forget to ask how do you...

I don't know how to... It's such a dumb question, but how did you come up with your... How did your signature look develop? Because you have a style that is very identifiable. Thanks. I don't know quite how to describe it, though. And not easily copyable.

Right. Thank you. Like it's, it's very, very, very rare. I think to find somebody working in art, whether whatever medium it is to be like, Oh,

that's this person, you know, you have a, a style that's not, it's not derivative. It's not, it doesn't like, um,

it's unique. Thanks. But how did that happen? I, I studied illustration. Actually, I went to school in San Francisco and illustration was my major for about three years. And it just was kind of a family friend of mine said, hey, why don't you, all the elements that you love, lighting and

fashion, makeup and making vignettes exist in photography. Why don't you try that? And I was just, it was kind of like a fluke. And so I, um, literally all my counselors hated me. I just, after three years, I was like, well, I'm changing my major. And, um, I, I just got into film photography, but I never even, um, I didn't even really do that well in school because even in film photography, I was doing, I really had no interest in photography. Like I was layering like three negatives and I was bleaching things. And like, it really was about illustration for me. And, um, uh, actually my, um, my Photoshop professor failed me after two years of Photoshop who said I had an unrealistic, um, unrealistic view of the program or something that I would,

I would never like be able to use it in a realistic, you know, my final project was like all these bald aliens and whatever. And, um, uh, you know hello i'm still photographing yeah um yeah what a good yeah you're so good um so i i don't i think any artist i i don't deem to like what can i do that's different i'm just making what i know how to make you do what you do I mean I guess that is that's like the hallmark of any true unique individual is that you just do you just do your thing and then it is what it is yeah but I don't look to photographers really I mean David LaChapelle was a big one in school that I knew of obviously Pierre Agile two amazing French photographers but like I didn't really know photographers but like you know Mark Davis or Erte or like these great illustrators. I was like,

I want my photography to look like that. So, um, thanks for the compliment. It's amazing. It's, it's really like, um,

it has almost a, um, like it's everything sort of a still from a film in a way. It's very like cinematic. Yeah. Yeah. Very. There's,

and I like an environment, like a world. Yeah. There's and I like an environment like a world. Yeah. It's a universe. Yes. Like there is you look at your photographs and you kind of get the sense that there is like a Franz universe. It's so like Wizard of Oz adjacent in a way. Don't you think?

And it's very it's very it's otherworldly, but it's also very flattering. Like when we were so we I was so excited to shoot with you for the red scare shoot so so france shot the red scare shoot which was so so so so so much fun but the thing is as a drag queen and where i mean i've been getting photographed in drag for about 10 years now or more and it just is as recently as uh drag con a couple years ago. They'll get the girls. Sometimes what will happen is a superstar quote unquote photographer will come into the drag world and be like, their interest is peaked and they shoot us.

But what they're interested in is texture. Oh, they want reality. They want the stark, pan fried reality. The crispy critter well of course listen fuck them whatever it was new york mag it was two years ago and it was the worst pictures any of us had ever seen in our lives and i hope everybody involved dies and i think that's very fair i was

i when they took my picture i was the freshest i had just gotten there it was like 15 minutes after i arrived and i looked a fucking mess because it was, it was like a, it was just everything you could see every, it was like, you know, those mirrors that are like five times magnification.

Oh yeah. It was like that. The way, the way you light to the, um, the unretouched, you see it on the, your monitor.

And I'm like, this is gonna be a great picture. If that's the raw. Oh my God. Thanks so much. And, but so i the whole point is i with you i knew a hundred percent i was like no matter what this motherfucker does

it's gonna look fantastic and that's very rare to have like to have that kind of like trust in a person because like i said you never know it's that even it sometimes it can go the other way where it's like the photo is so badly airbrushed where it literally looks like you're on a t-shirt in florida do you know what i mean like the person was failed in photoshop class yeah yeah yep well i think and i'm maybe i can speak for a lot of photographers but i kind of feel this sounds really philosophical but whenever i shoot someone i'm kind of treating it like a self-portrait. I'm shooting people the way I would want to be photographed myself. And I don't know if this kind of borders, I mean, we have all these terms, is a photographer an artist? Is an artist

a photographer? Are they the same things? Sometimes I think, obviously, we're living in a world that photography is so disposable. It's just in and out where, because maybe, I just have a different outlook. My goal is always like what would i hang this picture in my living room and if i wouldn't then i don't really have any interest in it so um you know i've uh yeah i think that makes a lot of sense yeah you should i think it's okay to make something and love it and i know we're supposed to be like whatever i did it i whenever i'm glad you like it like i a thing. You should love what you make, I think. Yeah, I agree.

And that doesn't mean it has to take forever. I used to be in that kind of mindset where I was like, this has to like really like, I have to bleed for this to mean something. So I would spend months making these huge sets and like, just like it was my whole life. But I think maybe coming to LA,

I've learned to like, you can make something brilliant, you know, in an afternoon. And granted that, you know, just like our Red Scare shoot, thank you for saying that. That was like, that was so much fun. It was fun.

Do you always enjoy yourself when you're in the process of shooting or working on something or can it be a slog? Yeah. This also sounds really prima donna, but I get really exhausted from shoots I don't know if you like you're you know sometimes explains the fainting during the shoot you just kept falling

thank god for that we had three that you placed but you kept finding your light while it happened thank you I also by the way this is so weird I have no hair on my knees and people are like, why don't you have any knees? But, um, it's because I, I really feel just a little circle.

You're on your knees so much as a photographer, at least for me. I know that's an insert pun in here, but, um, it's exhausting. You know, you have early call times.

Oh, gorgeous. You don't, you know, I'm not like using the bathroom all day. You're barely drinking water. You're just like, so in the zone that after 12 hours of that you kind of when reality snaps back i'm just like

on such a high when i shoot that i forget to take care of myself so that's yeah that's a thing that's i mean i feel like that's just a thing in general yeah i don't i enjoyed myself that day a great deal but it's by the way i was told something very flattering i was actually by multiple people on set they said oh god you would never do this for anyone else the way, I was told something very flattering. I was actually by multiple people on set. They said, Oh God, you would never do this for anyone else. The fact that I was like, no, we need more.

We need a couple more hours. Let's do this. And this, and you kept showing up and you were like there. I felt very flattered. I love when you snatch the pads off and Franz goes, can you go put your legs and ass back on? You grabbed me at the shoulder.

You're like, don't, don't ask. She's not going to do that. Our whole career is me. I'm like her secretary. People go, what about you guys doing this? I go, she's never going to do it. I'll do it. She's not going to do that. Our whole career is me. I'm like her secretary. People go, what about you guys doing this? I go, she's never going to do that.

I'll do it. She's never going to do it. But you actually showed it. You didn't repad, but you came back, and we made you a lovely muumuu and suspiria. And we had a fabulous little coda to the day. We did a whole bunch. We did the video at the end of the day, and it was fantastic. Yeah.

But I will say, that was remarkable because that place had no ac oh yeah and there was i was wearing a latex um uh vest yeah or a rubber vest and i so there's like moments where i like i almost i can see that um on the horizon snapping i don't think i would never have snapped sometimes i require people, and I always tell this to people, like I will keep going until I get the shot. And if you are feeling like you need to stop, like you need to tell me that because I'll just keep going. Not,

you know, so you didn't, you just kept going. Yeah. I mean, it was, that was one of my better days, but like the,

I, you know, communication between a photographer in the, the, the person being photographed can be very strange. And one of the things I noticed with you is that you give clear direction, which I really appreciate because sometimes you kind of just, you're in front of the camera and you have no idea what, I mean,

I can't see myself. I don't know if I look ugly, stupid, whatever. And it's really like, you never look stupid. Wow. I mean, but you know, no, come on, like two degrees to the left and it's like, man, you know? So it's like, it's kind of hard to, to just need a helpful, like just move your chin a two degrees to the left and it's like, man, you know? So it's like, it's kind of hard to- You just need a helpful, like, just move your chin a few inches to the left. And you said exactly that. Like that's very helpful to me rather than like fierce. Yeah, fierce.

Look fierce. Look sexy. You're like, what the fuck does that mean? I would never. There was this one photo shoot. Whatever. It was for Out Magazine. And I don't remember the photographer's name.

And it was, um, I believe the person, I don't remember the name, but it was they, them pronouns and they were shooting me and it was natural light from the side and they were kneeling. And I said, this isn't working. I feel like we should flip this way. Like, you know, and I said, I'm worried about all this natural light and like the texture in my skin. And they go, oh, don't worry. I'm a master manipulator of light.

And I go, okay, Thomas Kinkade, let's reel it back here. And actually that whole shoot, they ended up having to put them all in black and white because I was like, these are nasty. You can't trust anybody.

I don't trust anybody. You can't trust anybody, which is like that, which is why I'm going to, my claws are clinging into your side and they're not leaving, you know, because I like that, you know, she's dead and we're photographing the body. You're, you're going to be there at my wake, the open casket next year, three months from

now. Thanks for that. Well, I, um, I mean, you should always have a queer mind on any set. I feel like, I feel like, you know, not all photographers are created equal. Someone who does portrait photography, you know, not all photographers are created equal. Someone who does portrait photography, you know, I could never pick up a camera and like go shoot a wedding and like get, you know, I've tried to like catch that moment of like the, and like, I can't do it. But other photographers are great at that and don't know what the hell they're doing in a studio. So,

you know, I think, um, especially when you're shooting anything along the lines of glamor, especially when you're shooting anything along the lines of glamour um you know it's all lighting so you know yeah there are photographers that do want to see and they're you know i can't believe i'm going to say this but i'm going to say this i remember even the annie leibovitz shots of rupaul for vanity fair they were stunning but they were not necessarily lit in the most flattering way so to speak no not at all you know and i think that's just what each photographer's prerogative about you know how fantasy you want to take it as opposed to like some photographers really do want you know and a lot of art buyers in the art world want to see the realism when you they want to see the seams they want the tuck they want the bubble gum on

the side of the tuck yes yeah. And that's a fine. That's interesting to them. Do you know how many of those I've retouched? Girl. What has been the wildest thing you've retouched? Like what's the nastiest, weirdest, wildest thing? Because you're really zooming in on people's nether regions. Yeah.

I can't say anyone in specific. Everybody's equally gross. For the people at home, let's recap some of my favorite pictures that um obviously katya yeah shot me devin a bunch of times right love devin that those disney shots of devin yeah i shot her as maleficent she helped me get a contract disney incredible there's you did a few of marlo um marlo's wonderful yeah and i don't know if she was who was the one who had had the crown of uncut dicks well that was Marlowe so that was I mean that was probably the most retouching

I've done on a piece I did a piece called Medusa and instead of it started off as a joke I just said it a bunch of you know wouldn't great to do a head of penises instead of snakes and everyone said that's completely mad you have to do it and I just gotten signed with Disney prior to that.

So I was like, maybe I shouldn't do this right now. But Disney actually, they said, whatever you do in your own private world, you just do it. You don't have to hide the nipple. Just hide the pisslet on the dicks. Oh, no. There was a lot of those. But I worked with them. Marlo was the face of that.

And then a lovely gentleman who shall not be named was the penises for that. And that took a long time because they, you know. Did you shoot all the dicks individually? Oh, yeah. Oh, wow. I mean, they were all him. Yeah, right. And fortunately, I knew him on a romantic level.

So the shoot was a little bit more, you know. Oh, we know what it was, you fucking whore. We know what it was. Well, yeah. Thank you. You know what it was. I enjoy my we know what well yeah thank you yeah you know you know what it was i enjoy my work yeah and um that explained why you kept touching me during our i'm just kidding that is not a joke not in 2020 i know well you know who else i'm trying to think of all my favorite uh

gg that gg with the birds she's yeah oh my gg Yeah. Sometimes people don't. Um, that's another thing that's interesting. I find with people that I, I think most, most people that are used to being shot are used to producing a lot of content. We need this many outfits, get the shot, you know, turn up. So we have lots of options. Whereas when I'm doing a piece like that, it's like, you're going to spend eight hours in hair and makeup, and then I'm going to shoot you for a half an hour and we're going to get one shot. And that's it.

That's my favorite photographers. I've all done that. Oh, amazing. Love. I love shooting with you. I, and then Albert.

Yeah. And then you guys don't Adam, um, from Chicago. He shoots a lot of the Queens or he used to, what's his last name? Like, Oh,

money. Oh, H a M E or something like that. Yeah. He's like, money oh you know h-a-m-e or something like that yes yeah he's like you know he'll go in on that retouching yeah um but he shoots for like 20 minutes and he gets it and it was always to me when you hear that that number of clicks keeps going up you start to realize that the person doesn't know what they're looking for it's a waste to i never understand photographers that i mean i guess unless you're shooting motion where you're just click click trying to get the right one.

It's like, why I'm, I come from the school of film where like, if you're shooting medium format film, like you've got 10 shots and that 10 shots just cost you 500 bucks for, you know, so like get the shot. Don't fuddly dudley with stuff like, you know, set up. But the one with Gigi actually took, I should take that back because, you know, we were shooting with, um, one bird with one bird named Peaky, which I had to shoot in multiple positions all around her and then composite it all together. And fun fact, the woman who owned that bird, Peaky, was the woman who played Samara in The Ring.

You're kidding. Yeah, she was the contortionist. And so she has this pet bird. So it was a great shoot and the bird was amazing and like literally was like a cat like you could hold it and loved gg and talk to you and would like snuggle into your neck and it totally changed i'm a little scared of birds because they are dinosaurs but um i love yeah oh i love birds they're gorgeous but you know don't bite your ear off. Yeah.

They'll peck your eyes out. You don't think a dog will kill you? Absolutely. I know that. I count on it. I don't have any illusions about that. Next shoot, I'm putting dogs all over your shoulders. Yeah. Dead dogs.

Yeah. Perfect. Oh, my God. Can I ask, aside, who's, like, your favorite person you've gotten to shoot where you're like this is like the stuff that I dreamed about doing wow well I still have a list of people that I was really yeah who's on the list let's put sure they let's flatter vision hot Angelica Houston come on um until I've I've I was close to shooting her once I'm still gonna try it just get the swing i was gonna say yeah till just went in i feel like was you have to shoot her shoot till though yeah she has that

like oh i mean talk about alien oh talk about like she always looks like national geographic it's the last photo of her scene alive yeah i love that yeah just but which is why you love shooting yes yeah wide eyes but i mean i would love to shoot like gaga and you know i like shooting i'm not necessarily after shooting like what's the biggest celebrity i can shoot that's not really what it's about for me it's more about like who can i transform the most and usually i like that process a lot of like let's take you out of your element completely and i know everyone's heard it like let's do something totally different that you've never done. But I really aspire to do that with every shoot that I do. And sometimes it's got me in trouble.

I've pushed people a little too far out of their comfort zone. And they don't know how to react to the photos in the end. It's too much for them. Really? So have you had a person who like really unhappy with the film? It was me and I don't want to talk about it. I've really, well, to different degrees. I mean, for the most part, everyone's always even, you know, people are, I'm really grateful

that the majority of people that I've shot always are really happy with their images. Sometimes people that I've shot will be, you know know will give me a list of my along of like i love it but like please fix this which i'm always happy to do um there was only one person that i shot which i shall not name her name um but it was yes um and it was it was horrifyingly bad we just we just mouthed the word Susan Boyle. Yeah. Oh, no. I would love to shoot her. Really? Yeah, and I think, you know, without fluffing my own feathers, I thought the images turned out gorgeous. And everyone that saw the images said that she had never looked better.

But I think it was just too far out of her she's, how she's used to being seen. And, um, uh, and, uh, yeah, that was a kind of an ugly story because instead of just, um,

maybe, um, uh, politely saying these aren't quite what I wanted. She really kind of degraded me. Um, yeah, it was really bad.

I, it was like really, really bad. It took me a long time to get over that. And, um, you think that when you shoot people that have been in the industry for so long that they would have decorum and courtesy.

But yeah, I didn't. Or that they've been through something like that before. Yes, yeah. Approach it with a bit of tact. Yeah. Portrait, like a portrait with someone like you is also so intimate. So I'm sure for a lot of people,

it just is, how is it not vulnerable? And how is it not? Well, I mean, I remember, I mean, I had a similar situation where I remember, you know, after our shots were done and they were rolling out, I was like,

you said charts. Yeah, after our charts were done. We have to stop and mention that you just said after I sharted on your shoot. Remember when I shit wet shit, I farted wet shit

all over the floor at our shoot? Oh no. She didn't say anything. Not glamour. He didn't even mention it. Well, you know, he quietly cleaned it up yourself

which i thought was really impressive thank you very much no but when the images came out i said aren't you gonna retouch them at all and you said no they need to stay raw i'm not gonna retouch these images we need to show you people as you really are and then those were the images that people saw no photoshop or anything yeah It's true. Yeah. In fact, I added wrinkles and sporks to the finished one. That took me on a journey. I went, did we really not retouch those? I didn't realize you would be serious. Oh, no.

The retouching, I think, is the most fun part. And retouching's been around forever. I really have, over the years, have had to wade through the retouching pool because it's something that is so, people get so opinionated about retouching but people loved people love this whole and now that the retouch the democratization of retouching is like through facetune and everybody else retouched you know what i mean yeah i mean i don't know any drag queens who would throw up an image without a

filter or some kind of facetune thing besides you I do it a lot. You, but I wear so much makeup that I know that if I light it like straight on, it is what it is. And as long as the skin texture isn't like being brought out, like I can live with it. Yeah. Yeah. What do you think about, I mean,

there's, I'm always fascinated by this, like, Oh, it's like you have to pull the wool over people's eyes. Like when you're retouching your own images that you can't let anybody know that you've done, there's a shameful element of it. Especially with drag.

Well, that's a lot of times too why I don't allow people to see the images while we're shooting because people will get in their head and they'll lose the goal of the shoot. They'll just immediately go, oh God, I need to change this. And they won't just give me what I need and let me worry about that later but um i mean retouching's been around forever

ansel adams retouched his work and i mean every shot you've ever seen of marilyn monroe they would bleach their negatives and and you know physically air you know that's where the term airbrushing comes you'd physically airbrush your work with paint and And so, um, yeah, I, I kind of get up in arms a lot about the, the, the debate of like, you know, in order. Thomas Edison,

Thomas Edison, famously wore a shape tape concealer at all times. Exactly. Well, yeah. I mean, the idea of idealizing art has been around forever since the Egyptians. So,

um, I don't know what just got me triggered about all of this. It's not unlike the idea of like, Oh, this is retouched. Yeah. about all of this. It's not unlike the idea of like, oh, this is retouched. You retouch this? It's not real. If you're going to be anti-retouch, you also have to be anti-hair and makeup.

Yeah, and light. Clothing, lighting. None of that's natural. What are we doing? What do you think about like taking out a leg? You know, like sometimes on the, it's always funny to see like, you know, in Vogue or whatever where they're like,

they'll just, they'll take the scale out of something or they'll just like whittle down somebody's arm to like a, to a bone or something. And it just like, it's kind of insane that way. But, but I guess on the cover of Vogue, it's probably more like, it's less about fantasy and more about reality. Although I could be wrong about that. I wish it was back to fantasy. I know. I don't know. Well, you're really towing the line as far as like would you do a vote cover very high fantasy in a minute that'd be amazing on your vote cover oh god probably somebody already dead i mean

yeah i mean like the vote would pay for the exhuming of the course of lucille ball if i could shoot lucy that would be, that's like the dream. You know what I mean? Yeah. What about a man? Who's your, dead man? Oh. Living, so let's say two men, living and dead.

Who's your? Like a Vincent Price. I mean, I'm like, I live for that. I thought he was, him and his youth. If you ever look a picture of Vincent Price, young, damn. Really? Just, yeah. I'm going to look that up.

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That's BetterHelp.com. And we're back. And we're back. So, Vincent Price, young Vincent Price was a hottie. Who would be your living male cover guy? Oh, no. I'm so bad at this. I don't know who's beautiful.

Who's, who's beautiful? Are you paying attention to the people who are live right now? Not really. No. I'm not either. I never, I never know what anything is.

Yeah. I mean, who's a, who, who, who do you think? I should shoot. Um,

I mean, uh, you know, you would be really good with Timothee Chalamet. Oh, Timothee Chalamet. Timothee Chalamet. Yeah. Because he's got that um i feel like you could insert him into some kind of like dandy he could or harry styles i'd love to shoot harry styles you know who i'd love to shoot

jonathan taylor thomas jdt childhood crush someone asked me that ages ago they were like who from the past like heartthrob would you shoot but he's gone he's gone. He's just here. He's dead? Oh, no. I don't think, I got it. He's not dead. No, he's just, I don't know where to find him. But like, you know, I'd want to shoot like the most. I keep looking. You have.

You act like you're walking around Hollywood, like Jonathan. I'm going to get that tattooed to my moomoos, just looking for JTT. I have to ask, besides your photography, you have a very distinct personal style. When did you, I mean, it's your drag. When did you start dressing kind of the fantasy every day? Well, I have a great mom who really encouraged me from, I mean, really, I was wearing dresses and jelly shoes in elementary school. I mean, and I should say both of my parents are really fine with that. But, um, yeah, I, I don't, I think I, I was really privileged in many ways

growing up, including that, um, that I, it was like, I never questioned that when people were like, why are you wearing a like floor length kimono in like high school to, you know, on a Tuesday? I just didn't, um, I don't know. I didn't get, yeah. And I grew up in Reno, which is a, now it's a little bigger, but you know, like the best place you could shop at was like Hot Topic. And I was like, I'm not going to go to JCPenney. And I just, I don't know. I just wasn't like a jeans and t-shirt kid.

So yeah, thanks for saying that because I really only wear black muumuu's every day. No, but you're so glam. Yeah, you are glam. And you, so, and you also, I mean, I remember a couple of years ago, we were over at your house and you're so glam yeah you are and you so and you also i mean i remember a couple years ago we're over your house and you're like um it's like oh i've been playing around with music and then you played us how have we not touched on it like you've been doing it all your life in addition to franz being both an inspiration

and beauty in front of and on the like on the camera lens both yeah behind the camera in the camera yeah thank you for that you also are a fabulous musician with probably some of my favorite music videos i've ever seen yeah the music was so good but junia so good like it's embarrassing how good you are thank you really that means a lot when people i i have no idea what i'm doing musically and i truly mean that i don't know because i i i have to say this too coming from a photo background i i really when i turned 30 i kind of had one of those like what am i doing with my life like why am i not doing more stuff like i know i'm a photographer and i love what I'm doing but like I should just be doing more artistic things I think

it's good for photographers to to be in front of the camera every now and again because it helps you direct your subjects so much better it always blows my photographers oh I can't get my picture taken it's like no like you need to know what you're making others suffer through you know yeah how do you how do you how do you how do you deal like are you more meticulous or are you harder on yourself when you're in front of the camera like what's your experience of being the the self-portrait um i just i love myself yeah we're all just gumby i don't know i don't look at myself as anything nobody's a model and everybody's a model so i think to a photographer i'm like i know what i can i can you

can you can alter everything nowadays so um yeah i just i don't know wherever we've segued sorry from music thank you for appreciating my music it really just started off as like a you know i took a book of poetry that i'd been working on i was like how do i turn this into a poet well anything else car repair well i only had the book because i got down the tree and made the I was like, how do I turn this into... Oh, so you're also a poet. Anything else? Car repair? Well, I only had the book because I signed on the tree and made the paper. You're a true renaissance. We all write poetry. Come on.

We're all fiddly diddly. Several volumes. Yeah, exactly. I shouldn't even say poetry. We all have ideas and we write them onto paper. I know we all do that. We form sentences. We call it poetry.

We write the check. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. But speaking of Devon Green and her magnificent beau, Ned Douglas, really, I just, it was just friends that were like, encouraged me that just said, you should turn this into music. And so I just got, I, you know, I'm just lucky that I'm working with really talented people that I can, you know, really'm just lucky that I'm working with really talented people that I can, you know,

really like the first album that I did, I don't know how to read music or I've never studied anything. So I was being very Enya in the sense that I was doing all of my demos just by layering myself humming in GarageBand. And I was taking all of these to net and saying like, okay, like, here are the tracks that need to be guitar. Like I, and it sounded like a mess, but, um, he, you know,

a good producer. He deciphered it. He was like, totally. And he's very British. And I can't, he hates it when I do that, but,

um, it's, yeah, he was just like, brilliant. It's so cool to be like, I feel like we have a little coven going on here in LA. I,

it's like, it's a cool little little group of people. We do. It's very cool. There's famous people, and then there's the people you actually would have the privilege to meet, the people who really like you, who are just creatives,

who set the standard for both. The final product, everything you put out is so, you know it, you stand by it, you swear by it, the integrity. You know what I mean? Thanks for that. Well, the feeling's mutual mutual with you too i think it comes down to art for art's sake there are people who

are yeah what people think about commercial integrity i agree but it's true it's it's true i mean what you guys do comes from the heart and you guys have to go into another dimension to be as crazy as you you know what i mean you're not i don't view you guys as being like commercial artists even though what you do translates to commercialism well but i think the core of what you do neither one of you think about like what will do good commercially you're just crazy people that are making art which i really relate to you know so it's got to be fun man it's a good balance because i'm i've always balance because I'm always trying to sell something on the corner. And she's always kind of like, but I don't want to do that. And so it's a good balance of like, we have to get paid a little bit and actually enjoy it.

You have to get paid or else you can't make the fantasy. You got to get paid. So speaking of getting paid, let's take another break. Speaking of getting paid, let's take another break. Let's take another break. Speaking of getting paid, let's take another break. So money is a thing, but it's not everything. I think you really look at the importance of what are you doing with your time?

The conversations that we've had with our financial advisor is very much building what that framework looks like that helps support those important things. The places where you're investing your time and your resources, your family clearly, and those closest to you. Edward Jones. We do money differently. Visit edwardjones.ca slash different. You know what's great about ambition? You can't see it. Some things look ambitious, but looks can be deceiving. For example, a runner could be training for a marathon, or they could be late for the bus. You never know.

Ambition is on the inside. So that road trip bucket list? Get after it. Drive your ambition. Mitsubishi Motors. In 100 meters, turn right. Actually, no. Turn left. There's some awesome new breakfast wraps at McDonald's. Really?

Yeah. There's the sausage bacon and egg. A crispy seasoned chicken one. Mmm. A spicy end egg. Worth the detour. They sound amazing. Bet they taste amazing, too.

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getting paid, what is it? So talk about working for Disney. Well, I mean that sentence sounds a lot better than it is i've only have one piece that's been released by them as of now even though i have a whole stack of images that i've finished for them that um are waiting okay disney um uh what do you want to know that's that the maleficent that's the maleficent that was the first one you know i have to say and i'm saying this with all due love, I wasn't really Disney's cup of tea, so to speak, but I grew up watching Disney films.

And when I moved to LA, I was like, I have to do work for Disney. And Disney Fine Art is who I'm signed with, but it's a section of their merchandising where they feature maybe 100 artists worldwide that do different variations of Disney characters, but they, they don't work with photographers.

They only work with illustrators and sculptors and whatnot. And so I went in there with all these big gay ideas and it took five years for them to, I'm not exaggerating five years of back and forth and meetings and give it, they probably, they're probably extremely protective. They're very protective. Something is old.

And like, I don't know like i guess what's the word important to them as like a sleeping beauty character yeah i was referencing stuff you know salvador dali was one of disney's best friends and the stuff that if you look at like old from the 50s like conceptual art of those early disney films they were dark and like weird as hell and um that's what i really wanted to tap into but i and i have to be careful what i say i don't know if those ideas are still what is wanted by disney but i'm still pushing it as far as i can and um i mean looking here devon i mean the way you shot her and the way it's lit

it she's definitely spooky she's definitely spookier than she's portrayed in the films yeah her face is um it's a little if you woke up in the night and saw that across the room yeah horrifying devon's that shoot by the way too was like a 13 hour shoot the police came because of all the smoke bombs it was like that was a good example of like you know devon standing there dressed really and devon is such a pro didn't complain once even though she passed out literally once because the people in the faint i know know, I know always pulling focus. Well, those horns were real.

And so they weighed so much and just having weight on your head for that long. And you know, I was pushing her to smoke bombs, sulfur everywhere. And just, it was like a lot of knives, knives, knives in her feet.

Yeah, exactly. The feet that you bound for the day. Yeah. That's beauty standards. Yeah. So you're such an icon. I just sometimes can't believe we know you

i know that and you're not an asshole i mean you know you hear so many horror stories about people with major talent and it's like you start to think that if there any if anybody's that good then they have to come with all this you know these caveats and baggage oh god ego will rot you ego will start to rot you yeah who has time for all that yeah exactly time for all that to know you is such a privilege and to be shot by you is like a whole nother privilege. And I just always can't wait to see what you do next.

Well, let's keep it going. You too. Yeah. Where can we, where can people find you in your work? Well, you can find me on my website, franzoni.com or on Instagram at the same name.

And that's S-Z-O-N-Y. Correct. F-R-A-N-Z-S-Z-O-N-Y. I'm telling you guys, just go to the website. It's the first thing you're hit with is a gallery view of some of these images and they will just,

I mean, I'm not encouraging them to do this, but it would make great phone screen savings. Absolutely. These pictures are so beautiful. Look at Candy Ken. Yeah, Candy Ken is David. He's so great. So great.

Matthew. Yeah, Matthew's fantastic. Have you shot Violet? I've shot Violet, yeah. They were, I don't. She survived. She survived. Yeah, Matthew's fantastic. Have you shot Violet? I've shot Violet, yeah. They were, I don't. She survived. She survived, yeah. Violet's fabulous.

I did some promo stuff for her tour. I've never shot her. Oh, that's her commercial. Yeah, I've always shot Violet as Violet. I've never really quite taken her into like Fran's world, but I'd love to at some point. I mean, when you're Violet, you've

already arrived. Agreed. For us he's more like what if we got you in a totally different wig and makeup and a completely different outfit. Okay what if you look good? I always say that's the spirit of drag is you are a star we just gotta change your height, your voice,

your hair, the color of your skin. Cut my hair. We love you. Thank you so much, Franz. We love you both so much. Thank you for being here. Thank you guys, of course. Bye.

Goodbye. Bye.