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David
Salcido: You've got a lot of pictures here
of Tony Ward. He's probably you're most famous
model to date, wouldn't you say?
Rick
Castro: Yeah, he's definitely a muse. And
he's the person I've photographed the longest.
I still photograph him to this day. I just
photographed him for an Italian line of men's
clothes. And I did a picture of him and his
baby. He has three children now.
David
Salcido: So you guys are longtime friends.
Rick
Castro: Oh yeah. I feel like I discovered
him. I even asked him, "Tony, I
discovered you, didn't I?" and he said,
"Yeah, you did." But I didn't make
him famous. I was reading a copy of In Touch
magazine, I think around 85 or 86 and I saw
his layout and thought that he was absolutely
the most stunning man I had seen in my life. I
was working as a wardrobe stylist at the time,
so I showed the images to the photographer I
was working with at the time, he did a lot of
work for Interview and magazines like that,
and I said, "we've got to use this guy,
he's incredible." He said, "yeah,
can you get a hold of him?" So, at the
end of his spread there was a contact number,
it said Tony Ward's management, which is
usually a euphemism for "sugar daddy."
So, I called the phone number in San Diego and
said that I was interested in photographing
him for a men's fashion layout and the guy on
the other end said, "well, if you can pay
for his bus fare, you got him." (laughs)
So, he came out to L.A. and we used him for
the layout, he was great, and we became very
good friends. He was very shy.
David
Salcido: Tony Ward shy?
Rick
Castro: Very shy. Very quiet.
(points to a
picture of Ward wearing a large black strap-on)
That's not shy!
Rick
Castro: Well, not anymore. (laughs) Soon
after that, we introduced him to Herb Ritts
and Ritts said, "oh, he's really great,
but I don't like his nose." So, he would
always photograph him, but he would turn his
head or hide his head. That was very upsetting
to Tony that he didn't want to use his face.
Herb always photographed his body and that
became the very first Calvin Klein underwear
box cover. Tony was the very first Calvin
Klein underwear model. In fact, Herb had a
birthday party that Madonna had been invited
to and that's where she met Tony. She put a
cigarette out on his back to get his attention
and they became lovers. |
