Bad Behavior

Bad Behavior is a radical new approach to portraiture. Rather than photographing his subjects posed in front of standard, neutral paper backdrop, photographer Bill Hayward boldly invites them to transform the backdrop in any way they choose. Armed with scissors, brush, and paint, the subjects take over, creating fascinating, often amusing, and always revealing portraits. Some use the backdrop to paint portraits, some create landscapes, some write words or phrases, while others create entire stories. Many choose to transform not only the backdrop, but themselves--removing their clothes and/or painting their bodies in the process.

Hayward's subjects are luminaries in a variety of creative fields: painters, actors, directors, dancers, writers, musicians, and poets. Among these are several well-known figures, such as actors Willem Dafoe and Mary Beth Hurt, poets Sharon Olds and Gerald Stern, artists Nancy Spero and Leon Golub, writer Michael Cunningham, musician Michael Feinstein, the late author and actor Quentin Crisp, and comedian Al Franken.

With anecdotes revealing what went on behind the scenes and an illuminating foreword by art writer and critic Carter Ratcliff, Bad Behavior is a fascinating and important new form of portraiture and a tribute to the creative spirit.

Bill Hayward is a photographer who works and lives in New York City.

Carter Ratcliff is a contributing editor to Art in America. He has written a number of books on artists, including John Singer Sargent, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Andy Warhol.