Take Five: Douglas Kirkland

Take Five: Douglas Kirkland Litepanels sits down with the legendary photographer to talk inspiration, art, and reflections on the past and future.

1) What inspired you and got you started in your career?

I grew up in a small town in Canada, Fort Erie, which had about 7,000 people. I took my first picture when I was 10, and by the time I was 15, I was shooting pictures for the local newspaper. I started to shoot weddings, babies and anything else I could get in front of my 4 x 5 Graflex Speed Graphic, which was the big camera of the day. I loved making pictures, and I thought this was the most exciting job anyone could ever have. It was, and still is, my passion.

2) What is one of your all time favorite photos (not shot by you)?

There is a picture by Pete Turner, who's both a legend and a friend. It is a wonderful image ( Road Song ) of a car in the distance, with a fence running along the side. It is early evening, and the light is very blue.

Another one of my favorites is by Irving Penn, who made some extraordinary images of what we used to call still life, but he did it with electronic flash. Irving photographed Jell-O being poured into a glass, and it was very ahead of its time because no one used electronic flash quite like he was using it.

Arnold Newman also made a great picture of pianist Igor Stravinsky that I have hanging on my wall. You can see the whole piano, and Stravinsky is sitting in the lower, left-hand corner. In my teens, it showed me that you didn't just have to bring the camera square on your subject, but there could be a design element as well. Arnold said Harper's Bazaar refused the photo because they didn't want so much piano in the picture, but Arnold told me that he sold more copies of that print than any other in his career.

3) Looking forward, if you could have one innovation delivered or product invented- what would it be?

Truthfully, I'm quite happy with the state that photography is in technically. That is not to say that it can't get better, because it can always get better. The first Kodachrome that I shot was ASA 10. Recently I was in a mine in South America working on The 33, a film about the minors in Chile who were trapped in 2010. They wanted to work with minimal light, obviously, since it was underground, and I got to ISO 10,000. Imagine starting at 10, and here I was at 10,000. I hope technology keeps growing, and continues to be that exciting.

4) Do you have one piece of advice or tip for someone just starting out?

When I started out in New York, everybody said to me, Oh Kid, sorry you are coming now. You're too late. It all happened. There will always be people telling you that you should have been here yesterday. Don't listen. Beyond that, remember that it is necessary to have enough ego to commit yourself to ideas, know you are right, and instill confidence in the people around you. But at the same time, your ego has to be kept in check. What you need to succeed is confidence in yourself, but also sensitivity to others, whether it is with a camera or just in life.

5) If you hadn't become a still photographer, what career might you have pursued?

I used to paint when I was young, so that might have been an area I tried, and I maybe would have tried my hand at cinematography too. Exploration and experimentation excite me, and they always will. I think many worlds could be interesting to me, but what photography allows me is ultimately the most electrifying because you can be very hands on, and do it the way you feel. I like the place that I'm in.

About Douglas Kirkland

Douglas joined Look magazine in his early twenties, where he made a name for himself shooting portraits of iconic movie stars such as Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. He went on to work at Life magazine, and eventually segued into shooting on the sets of over 150 major motion pictures, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Out of Africa, and Titanic. His work is in the permanent collections of the of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian, the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra Australia, the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Eastman House in Rochester, the Houston Center for Photography and the Annenberg Space for Photography. His books include Light Years, Legends, Freeze Frame: 5 Decades/50 Years/500 Photographs, Coco Chanel: Three Weeks/1962, A Life in Pictures: The Douglas Kirkland Monograph, and the upcoming May release entitled Come Una Pin-Up . For more about Douglas, visit www.douglaskirklandphotography.com.

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