Talk about naked ambition. Last March, the Tampa Bay Times reported on Ann Arbor-based photographer Harvey Drouillard, who visited the Bay area to photograph unclothed "nubile young women" and "oddly shaped older men," whom he met via word of mouth and responses to Craigslist ads, in front of city landmarks for an urban art calendar project.
"Fifty-five locations in all were captured in a mere three week visit!" Drouillard wrote on his website.
Along with St. Petersburg, models in Tampa and Ybor City were also photographed, in addition to some in Gulfport and St. Pete Beach for The Harveyphotos 2015 St. Petersburg Tampa Bay Area Calendar.
On Monday, Dec. 8, Drouillard returned to the Bay area in a rental car from Michigan to deliver the calendars composed of his black-and-white shots.
"This time I brought my getaway driver, Oid," he joked, adding that Oid looks a lot like "a healthy/hippie Santa Claus."
"I really wasn't planning on doing much shooting, just four locations were originally planned. Little did I know we'd be shooting 27 locations with seven volunteers."
As an artist who specializes in shooting photographs of famous landmarks with nude people in front of them, Drouillard says he has at times become intimately familiar with various "constabularies," adding that what happened in St. Petersburg was the most amazing experience of his career — "the police were making requests!" he effused.
While having lunch at Mickey's On Central Avenue, the most memorable moments of his project began to unfold:
On arrival for lunch, Drouillard said that he and Oid were pleasantly surprised to find that "Angie, their favorite bookworm," was working behind the counter. Drouillard ordered the special and Oid ordered the veggie wrap.
"While we were eating, Angie was talking to one of the regulars about the calendar," Drouillard said. "This raised many questions that only showing the calendar itself was going to answer, so I got a calendar out of the car and brought it into Mickey's. … One of the pictures on the inside cover is a shot of a nude woman posing against a St. Petersburg police car and then another shot of a police officer shaking hands with the woman (who has no idea we just shot his squad car)," Drouillard added.
"Just after the woman starts looking at the calendar a police officer walks up, who is also a regular at Mickey's, and the woman says, 'Hey, do you know whose car this is?'"
"He first looks at the photograph of the handshake and then notices the nudity on the other image and says, 'What the heck!' With a huge smile on his face he grabs the calendar, sits down and starts flipping through it. The other woman wasn't even finished looking at it yet, so I went out to the car and grabbed more calendars (and the GoPro). Within just a couple minutes, a second police officer who was walking by was called in by the first. These guys were having a great time with the calendar, with only good things to say. They even got a couple calendars each to give as Christmas gifts (I signed one "to Sgt. Bush from your new squad!"). Another was signed 'to Batman.'"
As the group began to part ways, Drouillard says that Ofc. #1 (names withheld) recommended he shoot in Williams Park.
"Ofc. #2 chimes in saying, 'You could even get someone up on the stage,'" Drouillard added.
"Later that day Oid and I went down and met with officer #1 who, in true city ambassador form, gave us what I can only call a truly historic tour of Williams Park, making a special point to tell us about the new parking pad the city recently had put in so the police cars would have more visibility. … I have to admit all this seemed a little too good to be true. Could I be getting set up for a major smackdown 1,100 miles from home? But why would they buy five calendars? Wouldn't just buying one have sufficed?"
Drouillard had to find at least one volunteer willing to trust that the St. Petersburg police were not setting him up. They said they truly wanted their new police station/historic bandshell included with such local landmarks as The Pier and City Hall.
The following day, on arrival at Williams Park, the photographers positioned a getaway car at the northeast corner of the park facing north, basically just outside the entrance of the police station itself.
The first thing Drouillard notice was a conspicuous scarcity of police cars. None were parked in the new parking spot; none on the streets.
"Normally I would be astonished at my good luck, but believe it or not the lack of police presence was making me a bit apprehensive about the shot," he continued.
"While I was doing my preliminary walk-through to check for kids, I was unable to spot any police officers. I called everybody from the car to take their positions. Oid was already sitting on the step stool near the front of the stage pretending to be texting on his phone. As I was giving final instructions, approximately 30 seconds before we did the shot, the park suddenly came alive with police activity. Two squad cars quickly parked in the new parking area, and the officers in the cars walked away and were completely out of view, I felt relieved that the cops finally arrived — what the heck?
"We immediately did the shot. Everything went exactly to plan; the whole thing took about 20 seconds."
Jason Esposito, owner of Engine Rose, asked Drouillard if it would take the adrenaline out of it for him.
The piece titled "Black and White Ops" can now be seen at Hops and Props, 335 Second Ave. N.E., St. Petersburg (near The St. Petersburg History Museum).
Calendars can also be purchased at Fortunato's Pizza, Genaro's Coffee, and Davidson Fine Arts — all on Central Avenue.
Drouillard also notified us that a gallery show is in the works in the next couple of months — venue TBD — to show his personal favorites of the 82 locations that were photographed.
"When I come back for the gallery opening, there will be horses and lady Godivas riding right down the street and the cops are going to help me!" Drouillard said.
As far as feedback about the calendar goes, the only complaint that he's been receiving from the locals is not enough guys in the pictures. "I really can't do anything about that since everything is based on volunteers, but during this past visit male volunteers outnumbered female volunteers 4 to 3."
Visit harveyphotos.co/2015-calendar.html to see more images.
This article appears in Dec 25-31, 2014.