I arrived in New York City in 1976 to become an actor. But after five years of pounding the pavement and a moderate amount of success, I considered my odds and decided that stardom wasn’t in my stars.
I landed in the fitness industry, which coincided with the fitness boom back when Jane Fonda was making videos and aerobic classes were the rage. I became the fitness director for New York Sports Clubs, a prominent chain of health clubs in the Northeast, and managed their exercise programs. But after eight years of professional exercise, I was cooked and profoundly unfulfilled.
Aerobics? This is my life?
As an actor, I’d waited tables on the Upper East Side and had become friends with a chef whom I worked alongside. His name was Peter Gorman, and he was an aspiring writer. Over time, his career had flourished. He ultimately was hired as an editor for High Times Magazine—which coincided with my disenchantment with the fitness industry.
Gorman needed a photographer. He had been assigned to write a feature on the great Comanche war chief Quanah Parker, who gained fame as a fearsome warrior and, following his surrender, as a successful cattleman and leader of his people. Parker was also known as the founder of the Native American Church, which was formed in the aftermath of the so-called Indian wars and uses the sacred peyote cactus in its ceremonies.
Gorman recommended me for the photography gig. So, in March of 1991,1 traveled to Oklahoma with him to do my first photo feature for High Times.
I never looked back. A couple years later, I was hired as an editor as well.
It certainly was never my ambition to become a top pot photographer but, as we all know, life takes us in unexpected …
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Author: Malcolm MacKinnon / High Times
