I was introduced to Arnold by Frank Zachary who had hired me at Holiday magazine in the 1950s. It was always a special treat to work with Arnold's photographs. Sometime after I moved to San Francisco, in the 1960s, I got a call from Arnold. He and Gus were in town and asked me to join them for dinner at Cecilia Chang's restaurant in Ghirardelli Square. He said to come alone, he had a date for me. I was single at the time so I figured what the hell. I arrived at the appointed time to find Gus, Arnold and my "date," Imogen Cunningham. We had a rollicking good time, and Imogen was in great form.full of anecdotes and ribaldry, in her 80s. We carried on until closing.
In 1968, I was working as head art director at D'Arcy Advertising in New York. I had assigned Arnold to shoot a couple of ads for a business machine client.Arnold and I made a date for lunch on a Saturday. He asked me to come by the studio. When I arrived, Arnold was doing some chores; moving background flats and dusting the big Deardorf, fiddling with lenses. He said he wouldn't be long and asked me to please sit down over there.We went to lunch and after lunch he showed me his art collection in the spacious apartment he and Gus shared for so many years. A week or two later, I got a package delivered to my office. It was a black and white portrait Arnold had made of me as he was "doing his Saturday chores." I treasure it.
Arnold introduced me to the late lamented Luchow's on 14th Street. It was one of his favorite restaurants. Especially around Christmas.
I'd assigned Arnold to do a shoot in Toronto for Travel & Leisure in 1976. As he was setting up to shoot the handsome City Hall buildings, a group of about a dozen ladies appeared, dressed to the nines. One of the ladies approached Arnold and handing him her Instamatic, asked if he would take a picture of the group.Arnold arranged the ladies with great care, and snapped the picture. Little did they know.
Adrian Taylor