She immediately took him up on his offer. Once, having taunted her with the news that Taschen was publishing a book of his photographs, he immediately felt guilty and granted her free rein to photograph the interiors and contents of Owl Farm, the one part of his life that had not been extensively documented. They were never welcomed back.”įor all his volatile unpredictability, Sells describes Thompson as “essentially an old-fashioned southern gentleman,” whose fits of anger were often immediately followed by heartfelt contrition.
I’d seen the scorn he reserved for those who turned up to pay homage to him, got completely stoned and started acting stupid. “I stayed straight throughout my time there. “I decided early on never to get wasted with him,” she says proudly. The book conveys Thompson’s experience covering the 1972 US presidential election. The first edition dust jacket cover of gonzo journalist Hunter S Thompson’s 1973 book Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72. Sells ended up working as Thompson’s personal assistant for just over a year, doing “anything and everything that needed doing.” Her typical working hours were 11pm until dawn, and her tasks included preparing his often elaborate dinners to order (microwave turkey dinner with soup, chutney, peanut butter and salsa), reading his prose back to him while he shouted instructions (“Louder, louder, slower, slower”) and dealing with his increasingly frequent bouts of explosive anger at his publishers, editors, acolytes and the world in general. “It took me only a moment,” Sells says, “to answer ‘Yes’ to everything.” Hunter, as every local knew, was Hunter S Thompson, the celebrated creator of “gonzo” journalism, and the town’s most infamous resident. Are you a night owl? Would you be interested?’”
As Sells recalls in her new photobook, Hot Damn!: “She looked me up and down and said, ‘We’re looking for some help for Hunter. One evening towards the end of 2003, Chloe Sells was entering the J-Bar in Aspen, Colorado, in search of a late night drink, when an older woman approached her.
0 kommentar(er)
