When I look at this image it still amazes me that we pulled this off. For one who in their right mind would hang upside down with gravity boots and put their head in a fish bowel. Well Andy Dick would. It was just becoming famous and was game for anything. Not that he still isn’t game for anything.
We had a special fish bowel made to accommodate putting his head in and out. He was simply lifted upside down and hung by gravity boots.
When he was ready he lowered his head into the fish bowl. I told Andy that I’m placing a hammer right here next to the fish bowel so it you get into trouble and can’t get your head out just break the glass. Like that some how made him feel so much safer. It was strange to look at him with the fish swimming around his face and through the fake glasses. The production still looks very strange to say the least.
He would take a deep breath and lower his head in and let the water fill his sinuses. He could stay there for quite a while. I was very impressed.
Camera.
This was shot on a Hasslblad with an 80 mm lens using roll film. 100 ASA Ektachrome as I recall.
Light.
There were 2 102 speedotron heads bouncing into umbrellas on each side of the background to give it a nice white. Each side had one head up and one down. The lower head on each side was 1 stop lower than the upper head. This lets the white be a little darker on the bottom giving the shot some weight on the bottom. I used a small soft box on camera right and a umbrella behind the camera for a fill.
