Gerald also captures the fancy of visual artists, especially photographers. When he sent an email with the recent portrait by painter Robert Lambert, I realized that there were enough Busby photos in my inbox to make a gallery. So here’s a visual tribute to you, dear Gerald.
Robert Lambert
Mia Hanson
Mia Hanson
Deirdre O'Callaghan
Ves Pitts
The following shots are of Gerald in makeup for the film, Cafe du Diable. Yes, film directors are also drawn to him, starting with Robert Altman who put him in A Wedding back in 1978. Here’s how Gerald describes his scene in the film:
In the middle of the bacchanal of food and sex, I sit at a piano, periodically reciting monologues that comment philosophically on life. At one point, an opera singer (a soprano), the personification of vanity and narcissism, enters and we perform an aria that is a parody of baroque opera and its emotional conceits — an air that seems the inner drought, this dreadful blend of acuity, in matters of details and indifference, seems to matter more than any achievement. We all wear stylized make-up and costumes. My music plays in the background as I speak my monologues.
Ves Pitts
Ves Pitts
Thanks to the following for use of their work:
Robert Lambert
Mia Hanson
Deirdre O’Callaghan
Ves Pitts
Previously on MyBigGayEars:
Queeries for Gerald Busby
