Portrait of De' Ephraim~Manuel, 2015, Photograph

The photograph features model, De’ Ephraim~Manuel, wearing clothing from the collection of photographer Rick Castro’s longtime designer friend, Rick Owens. The composition is based on artist Steven Parrino’s modernist monochromatic paintings, with makeup by Sasha Spurill created to continue the theme of deconstruction and capture De’ Ephraim’s regal demeanor within a post-modern depiction of fashion and male beauty. Owens is originally based in Los Angeles, Castro is third generation Los Angeleno, and De’Ephraim is a transplant from Houston, TX–cultures and worlds colliding in a way that could only happen in Los Angeles! Castro has fond memories of creating images with De’ Ephraim and the clothing of Owens in his studio space off Hollywood Boulevard, next to the Egyptian Theatre–a time of tremendous creative energy in the heart of the city he knows so well.

Portrait of Holly Woodlawn, 1991, Photograph

The photograph is a portrait of Warhol superstar, Holly Woodlawn, created for Advocate magazine around 1991, when Castro was a freelance photographer for the publication and Woodlawn had just moved to Los Angeles to try working in the film industry. Coincidentally Woodlawn moved into the apartment building on Las Palmas Ave that the photographer used to inhabit in 1978—when rent was $125!

Castro, who had worked with renowned Hollywood photographer, George Hurrell in the 1980s, sought to conjure the tradition of Hollywood glamour portraits he had created but with a twist of punk aesthetic. For Castro, Woodlawn embodies the clash of old school Hollywood glamour—the promise and the dream—juxtaposed with the harsh reality of underground art life of 1970s New York. Hollywood is dreamlike career-making and transient all at once.