The first canvas photo backdrop Tamara Morrison ever painted was a scene of LaSalle Street, which she painted overnight after receiving a frantic call from high-end commercial still photographer John Welzenbach.
“The weather was 42-degrees below zero that day and John was trying to shoot a pair of workman’s gloves, looking down LaSalle Street. The camera froze and the talent left,” she recalls.
“John phoned me that night and asked if I could paint a LaSalle Street scene. I was up all night painting a 4×8-foot backdrop for his shoot.”
Since that winter’s day in 1983, Morrison designed and painted two backdrops a week, 50 weeks a year, for 28 years. She originally charged $100 to $1,500 per scene. She has sold 5,000 since then and currently maintains a catalog of 1,200.
“I considered myself one of the suppliers to these marvelously creative filmmakers and photographers for all those years,” she says.
Now Morrison is the last man standing.
As the Photoshop Age has rendered hand-painted backdrops obsolete, the time has come to sell her inventory, the prolific artist says with a nostalgic sigh.
“I had four calls for film backdrops last year,” she says. “The digital industry has taken away the need for real backdrops.”
