He's a photographer, so he knows something special when he sees it. Such was the case when Brad Guice (it rhymes with nice) first laid his eyes on the lovely Lisa Peluso at the Times Square Church. The award-winning photographer finally got the nerve to ask Lisa out. On their first date, the couple was at a romantic restaurant in Little Italy and out of nowhere, a group of girls came running up to Lisa, shrieking and squealing "Oh my gosh, it's Ava. Look, it's Ava!" Guice sat there confused as Lisa signed autographs for the girls. Once the girls were gone, Brad leaned over the table to Lisa and said "I seem to be having dinner with Ava. Who's Ava?" He knew that Lisa was an actress, but he had dated actresses before and "that can mean they're waitresses. Who knows what means?"
At the time, Peluso was playing Ava Rescott Masters on the now-defunct soap Loving. He had heard of the show, but didn't know very much about it. When they had just begun dating, Lisa "thought it was so great," he laughs, "that I was dating her without knowing who she was. At first she was bragging to everybody that I didn't know." Things changed quickly, though. "A couple of months later she was upset with me. She said, 'You don't watch my show! You don't care!' And I said to her, 'But I work every day.' 'But you have a VCR!' she said. Then I started watching."
Well, his eyes did not object to what they saw on-screen. On June 10, 1995, the couple got married. After they got married, Lisa was in need of new head shots. So marrying a photographer has its perks. Obviously he would take her photos. Wrong! She was photographed twice by two other photographers. "I was always too busy to shoot her." When Lisa said to him "Here I am married to a photographer, and I can't even get a head shot from him," Brad realized he should probably make time for his wife.
So, by now you might be wondering - how Brad get into photography? Was he born with a camera? Actually, no. He secretly wanted to be an artist. Unfortunately, like most kids, his dad wanted one of his sons to be a doctor or lawyer or one of those extremely high-paying jobs. His sister was the artist in the family and was attending the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena (in California, for those of you who don't know). Brad went to the University of California at Irvine and took premed courses. After doing that for about a year, he realized it wasn't something he wanted to pursue. "When I went to visit my sister, I would see the gallery walls, with all the art, representing all the different majors. i saw photography and I just about died...It was like a lightbulb going off in my head, a dream come true." When he told his father, the elder Guice was none too pleased with his son's dream.
Eventually, Brad's father agreed to pay for his attendance at Art Center, provided the boy could get straight A's. Brad sought his sister for help, took some photo courses at a local junior college, quickly put together a portfolio, and was accepted into the Art Center. Looking back at his beginning photos, Guice says, "I laugh at the pictures in there now. I used my sister's little 35mm Minolta, and I had surfing pictures, architecture and these weird shots of people - very artsy, cropped shots. There was no social statement and not much thought, but there was a real nice design quality to the pictures. There was some potential there."
Fast forward four years and add a second portfolio that was marked by a first class education from a school that opened doors with its name. Brad Guice came to the east coast, to the other celebrity city - New York - where he established himself as a still photographer. His first week there, he landed three national ads. "People were really envious! My photos appeared in every major magazine, from Vogue on down." Hey, that's not too shabby. However, Brad got tired of merely taking still photos; he was "burning out" as he puts it. So, he decided to go another route in photography and began to photograph his friends, "doing these beautiful black-and-white portraits. I put them together in a separate portfolio and immediately got work. It happened overnight and my career got very broad," something which was unusual for that time.
These days, Brad has well-known names among his clientele including Coca-Cola and the U.S. Postal Service. He's had his photos appear in the New York Times Magazine and Sports Illustrated. Among his human subjects, his clients have quite the range - from Larry King to the infamous Son of Sam Killer David Berkowitz. Through all the work he does, Brad's favourite is his participation with the World Challenge Missions through the Times Square Church. This mission gathers professionals who use their spare time and skills to help the needy. Brad photographs them doing their work. For the mission, he has travelled all over. "I devote about two months a year to these trips," says Guice, "I've been to Russia three times, Romania, Bosnia, Croatia and Mozambique...We do medical trips and food and clothing drives. To fit shoes on little orphans whose shoes are falling off them is one of the most gratifying things you can experience." I bet it is and it's great that he and Lisa take the time to help out.
Yes, Lisa does this as well. She has been on three trips herself. It was actually after a trip to Russia back in 1994 that Brad worked up the nerve to talk to Lisa. "When we got home, to the airport, as she was hopping into a taxi, I said, 'I really would love to go out with you some time,' and she said, 'OK. I'll see you at church.' I thought I had spent all this time getting up the nerve to ask her out, and she didn't understand I was asking her out." But she understood very well and look where they are today - happily married for nearly three and a half years. The love Brad has for Lisa is really quite obviuos (and it's no doubt she feels the same way). "I love her very much. I'm the luckiest man on the face of the planet. You can quote me on that."
You're listening to "You Were Meant For Me" by Jewel.
Information on (and quotes from) Brad Guice courtesy of Soap Opera Weekly.
