The Tweezer Times

By Lisa Golden Schroeder
I’ve been lucky enough to be a stylist now for 25 years. Paying my dues as a staff food editor donning the caps of prop and food stylist as needed. Assisting a cadre of venerable trailblazing stylists as I built my own skills. Keeping track of where the food was in a mile stretch of rental refrigerators on location TV shoots. Shopping for a case of perfectly ripe avocadoes, hoping to please the head stylist. Washing trailer loads of greasy sauté pans, standing out in the cold at 6:00 am waiting for the bakery to open. Then becoming established enough to have my own assistants to run the pre-dawn errands or do a bit of late night prep work. And I believe I’ve been a good boss—trying to be clear, give good direction and appreciate (no, being down right grateful) for the extra set of hands to get a job done. I’m only as good as my assistant on a complicated food shoot.

So I was recently asked by a highly regarded and gifted colleague (and long time friend) to take up the slack on a tough shoot. Basically assisting him because he was unsure of how the day would go. I was more familiar with what needed to be done than an assistant he had previously booked. So I showed up, rolls of Bounty paper towels in hand, to be an extra set of essential hands. But as the day began it became clear that I needed to ask a lot of questions. Or I was expected to read my friend’s mind. His style of working with an assistant consisted of a few words, expressed as passing demands. I couldn’t tell from minute to minute what I needed to do, so I asked or just tried to keep up as each shot unfolded. I felt a bit like a fifth wheel, unnoticed but for when I was suddenly summoned to the set. At the end of the day, as he packed up to leave for the airport, I received a perfunctory hug and good-bye. No thank-you or other acknowledgement of the favor I did. And I was left to clean up (as a good assistant should). My appreciation of what it’s like to assist was renewed. As stylists we often talk about good vs. bad assistants. But it’s really a two way street. A stylist needs to be proactive about what they need. A game plan, direction, and good communication make the relationship effective–and I was left that day feeling unsettled and questioning my basic abilities. We can’t diminish our studio team members, no matter their role.