JIM AND GLORIA:
Glorias was one of the first ones in taking sexiest pictures to Jim. She told later that she lubricated herself with melted butter and then had sex with Jim.
They had a short romance, filled of alcohol and substances. And of course, Gloria moved on, Jim moved on, and she became another name in Jim’s romances.
This is an article written by her for Relix Magazine: (1983)
JIM MORRISON AND THE MIDNIGHT PHOTOGRAPHER:
In the fall of 1967 when the Doors’ “Light My Fire” was blazing at the top of the charts, a fortuitous meeting between the ascending phenomenon Jim Morrison and rock’s force motrice. Photo-journalist Gloria Stavers, took place in her Manhattan apartment late one night. It was the beginning of an intense and intimate artistic and intellectual relationship.
Inter alia, Gloria introduced Jim to the camera as a living entity with ‘a spirit of its own.’ Gloria told him: “It’s not just a lens you look into. It’s an opening, a doorway that you pass through and when you do you many be whatever or whomever you choose to be – a lover, a killer, son, animal or knight-templier. You may seduce, terrify, amaze, mystify or cast a spell. All you have to do is dance for it and the camera will reflect your persona to the world.”
“Jim was a natural – like James Dean and Marilyn Monroe,” Gloria recalls. “He took to the camera like a lover to the beloved. It was utterly fascinating to photograph him. During the sessions we circled each other like curious lions. He loved it. That first night he said to me, ‘Oh, I see – I am the snake and you are the flute.’ Exactly.”
His response was immediate and electric. From the first note to the last the long midnight session vibrated with a fierce and forbidden music – music just on this side of the parallax of madness.
In the end the snake won.
Some very sensitive and intuitive performers – instinctly perceive the hidden magic of the camera and to surrender up to it some of the mysteriousness of their inner-being. Replications of such stars in these moments are piercing and unforgettable. They stay with us forever.
One night when we were in the midst of such an exotic sarabande Jim suddenly asked me, “Is it true that each time I look in there (the lens) and you shoot me you take a piece of my soul?”
“Yes,” I replied. “It is an act of love.”
“And I am accepting the invitation when I look in?”
“Yes.”
A strange sadness seemed to sweep over him. After the first few beats he said, “Then sometimes I won’t look at you. Some things I will keep secret.”
And he turned away for a while, back to his private and inviolate inner-world.————————————————————————————————
While people see Jim as a sex symbol because of his sexy pictures, Jim was sorry about making those photoshoots.
Excerpt from the Howard Smith Interview:
HS: Back at the beginning with the Doors, you seemed to be model of the year, you know, you couldn’t pick up a fashion magazine or some magazine without those sultry pictures.
JM: Sulky, too.
HS: Yeah, right, more sulky than sultry.
JM: Sordid?
HS: Sulky.
JM: Well, you know, I was … en vogue, you know …
HS: What did that mean to you, though, you know, at that time?
JM: I don’t know, I must have been out of my mind to do … Can you imagine … Can you imagine doing that?
HS: No, that’s why I’m asking you.
JM: Posing for a picture? Can you imagine? You know, and really looking in the camera and really posing? It’s insane! I must have been outta my mind. I- … If I had the whole thing to do over again, I wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t.
HS: What did you think, though, at the time?
JM: I thought I knew what I was doing, you know. I thought, you know, I knew what I was doing and then, the horrible thing about a photograph is, once it’s done, you can’t destroy it. It’s there forever. So can you imagine when I’m 80 years old and I have to look at myself, you know, posing for these pictures and everything? It’s too late. This guy is trying to put me on a bummer, man! That’s alright Howard, go ahead.
HS: Also at the beginning, there was all this talk about your sex appeal, you know, about how all women of different ages… in fact, I wrote that in the Voice, way before … you know, pretty early.
JM: That’s another thing, see. You know, talk gets around, talk, crazy talk like that. What happens? You know? I mean that’s a difficult burden to bear, you know. It really is. ‘Cause we all know no one’s any sexier than anyone else, right? Everybody’s got the same equipment, unless, you know … you know, biologically you got mixed up or something; we’re all about the same…
HS: Yeah, but I mean, there you were, with the leather pants …
JM: Yeah, it’s guys like you man, it’s the reporters, it’s the press, people like that, that create this insanity, you know, that make up this stuff and then people start believing it, you know.
HS: Why, you weren’t consciously playing that?
JM: Hell, no!
HS: And you didn’t dig it?
JM: Well, I must admit, that there were occasions when … Having a reputation like that, did help me out in some tight situations and plus, I got to meet a lot of groovy ladies that otherwise I wouldn’t … You know, they probably wouldn’t even have noticed me, you know. So, in that respect, it was all to the good.
“I wouldn’t mind dying in a plane crash. It’d be a good way to go. I don’t want to die in my sleep, or of old age, or OD…I want to feel what it’s like. I want to taste it, hear it, smell it. Death is only going to happen to you once; I don’t want to miss it.”
-Jim Morrison
We’re like actors-turned loose in this world to wander in search of a phantom … endlessly searching for a half-forgotten shadow of our lost reality. When others demand that we become the people they want us to be, they force us to destroy the person we really are. It’s a subtle kind of murder … the most loving parents and relatives commit this murder with smiles on their faces.
“
| — | Jim Morrison (via immadeofdoodles) |
It’s absurd. How can I set free anyone who doesn’t have the guts to stand up alone and declare his own freedom? I think it’s a lie - people claim thay want to be free - everybody insists that freedom is what they want most, the most sacred and precious thing a man can possess. But that’s bullshit! People are terrified to be set free - they hold on to their chains. It’s their security… How can they expect me or anyone else to set them free if they don’t really want to be free?
“
| — | Jim Morrison (via external-internal-freedom) |
