Douglas KirklandIntroduction| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:07 | Douglas Kirkland: I am here for you.
| | 00:08 | Again, you're the star.
| | 00:12 | Just turn a little that way.
| | 00:22 | What a beautiful name!
| | 00:26 | Came in with my portfolio and showed it to him.
| | 00:29 | 126 megs, that's a lot of information.
| | 00:33 | I'm one of the old guys.
| | 00:34 | It's trying to create a picture.
| | 00:36 | Trying a Burn tool around the edges.
| | 00:39 | (Music playing.)
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Career with a Camera| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:03 | Douglas Kirkland: My first
experience start when I was very young;
| | 00:07 | ten years of age as a matter of fact.
| | 00:10 | I come from the small town in Canada
called Fort Erie, 7,000 people, very small town.
| | 00:15 | I would come home from school
for lunch. My father did too.
| | 00:19 | He pick up the mail at the post office;
| | 00:21 | we had to go and get it ourselves
there and he would bring it home and
| | 00:25 | we would -- a Friday afternoon was the day
that Life Magazine came and that was a big deal.
| | 00:31 | And I remember so well that after we
had lunch, he laid it out on the table
| | 00:37 | and we were going through every page,
as much as we had time for it before
| | 00:40 | I had to get to back to school and he
had to get back to work, but we looked at
| | 00:43 | all the different pictures.
| | 00:44 | And that was the beginning of
my excitement for photography.
| | 00:47 | It all started there and just think,
here I am in this small town, where nothing
| | 00:52 | special really seemed to happen.
| | 00:55 | At that time, I looked at the pictures,
which were from Europe and Asia,
| | 00:59 | as well as United States and
all of the world, Latin America.
| | 01:03 | And there was somebody out there
taking those pictures and I wanted to
| | 01:08 | know about those people and those were the
coolest people in the world, men and women.
| | 01:13 | The more I learned about them, the more
excited I was and I just thought to myself,
| | 01:17 | I want to be that kind of a guy.
| | 01:21 | That's me, that's who I would love to be.
| | 01:23 | That was the beginning of a career.
| | 01:25 | I never thought I'd make any money
in some ways or anything like that.
| | 01:28 | That wasn't my motivation.
| | 01:29 | That wasn't when I was driven by;
| | 01:30 | it was just the idea of being able to capture
images and show the world how I saw things.
| | 01:37 | That was really the deepest
motivation for me about photography.
| | 01:42 | Now, how did I move forward?
| | 01:44 | I had many, many jobs.
| | 01:46 | Quite frankly, I never kept a job that
long, because I would become impatient.
| | 01:51 | I would keep wanting to move forward
and I had different jobs. I mean I had
| | 01:57 | worked on a commercial studio at one
point in Buffalo, New York, and another one
| | 02:01 | in Richmond, Virginia.
| | 02:02 | That was a printing plant, offset
printing plant, and that was good because
| | 02:07 | I learned a great deal about
printing at the same time.
| | 02:10 | That was a photo studio and printing plant.
| | 02:12 | So I learned more and I find as I
look back, I kept collecting really
| | 02:19 | an education in this.
| | 02:20 | I got some traditional education, yes, but
the best education was in the field for me.
| | 02:27 | One stage after another and then I
finally thought I have to get to New York and
| | 02:32 | I did get to New York and I worked for
the very prominent Vogue photographer
| | 02:37 | named Irving Penn. I was very lucky.
| | 02:39 | Some people say, how did
you ever get such a job?
| | 02:42 | You know how?
| | 02:43 | Again, I sat and I wrote letters to him
and finally he agreed to letting me come
| | 02:50 | and meet him and he said, you know,
I have no job, I have no job, but come by
| | 02:57 | and I will talk with you.
| | 02:59 | And I did and what happened is he
didn't have a job at that time, but about
| | 03:04 | six months down the road, he did because
the guy who had been there as one of his
| | 03:07 | three assistants, one of them, had to
go into the military, into the army.
| | 03:12 | So it was an opening and I got
that opening and so that's how it
| | 03:16 | happens sometimes.
| | 03:17 | You have to reach for it at each stage.
| | 03:20 | So here I am working for Penn,
which was an extraordinary experience.
| | 03:24 | I learned a great deal there.
| | 03:25 | I mean, watching the Vogue editors
march in and seeing just how the whole system worked;
| | 03:31 | how they used cameras, how they
used lights, how people interacted.
| | 03:36 | I had never seen that in the small
town world that I had grown up in.
| | 03:40 | I mean, photography didn't represent that.
| | 03:42 | So in New York, eventually, I had
the most extraordinary thing happen.
| | 03:47 | At, first, one of my first jobs
was working for Popular Photography.
| | 03:51 | How did I get that job?
| | 03:52 | I got that job just by again making
calls and I made notes of the editor's
| | 03:59 | names who were in the magazine and
called them and I got through the one of the
| | 04:03 | top ones, a guy named Bob Schwalberg.
| | 04:05 | He was one of my heroes, because I
used to read his text all the time in
| | 04:08 | Popular Photography.
| | 04:09 | And I went in with my portfolio and
showed it to him and I remember very well,
| | 04:15 | one afternoon about five o'clock,
he looked at it and he said, hey, you're pretty good.
| | 04:22 | He introduced me to some other people at
the magazine and that got me started at
| | 04:26 | working with Popular Photography.
| | 04:28 | Then frankly, I went on through
a series, again, of small steps.
| | 04:32 | Before I knew it, I was called and
asked to come in and try out for a job
| | 04:37 | at Look Magazine.
| | 04:39 | Now, the time I got to Look, I was just--
shortly I was going to be 25 and
| | 04:46 | in couple of more months,
I would be 25 years of age.
| | 04:49 | Here I am living in New York.
| | 04:52 | They were respecting me,
they think I can really take pictures.
| | 04:55 | I mean, I sometimes thought it was a con.
| | 04:57 | I said they were going to
find me up, but they never did.
| | 05:00 | They always trusted me and it energized me,
just having these chances. And just let me shoot.
| | 05:08 | I mean, I had never imagined I would
be shooting the big celebrities that
| | 05:12 | I eventually did, but I wanted to use my
camera and I wanted to show people what
| | 05:17 | I saw and I wanted to do it
always as good as I possibly could.
| | 05:21 | In any case, that led to a full-time job at Look
Magazine and that's when the world opened up to me.
| | 05:27 | I mean I traveled all over, I met big people,
small people and I learned how to communicate.
| | 05:35 | I learned the essence of photo
journalism at that time, which went on then to
| | 05:39 | portraiture and other areas, but this
is just the beginning and this is how
| | 05:44 | my career began and then I got into
photographing a lot of stars and that's a
| | 05:48 | separate story which
began with Elizabeth Taylor.
| | 05:51 | And I got started there and it went
on to all of the pictures that I'm more
| | 05:57 | known for, but my first star
for me is photography itself.
| | 06:02 | That's where the seed of it all lies and
the interesting thing I must advise you
| | 06:08 | that magazines come and go.
| | 06:10 | We have seen a lot of that.
| | 06:11 | I mean there isn't really a Look or
Life today but they got me started and
| | 06:14 | that's where I grew up.
| | 06:16 | The part of the job, if you want to be
a photographer, is falling on your feet,
| | 06:20 | reinventing yourself and because it's
constantly evolving and that's true of
| | 06:28 | most professions of this type.
| | 06:30 | I am in what's frequently called a
glamor profession or job and boy, it has been
| | 06:35 | very good for me, because I have
been able to go all over the world.
| | 06:38 | I work with my wife Francoise
here, who does everything with me.
| | 06:42 | She is my agent, my lover, as
we say dances with the clients.
| | 06:47 | They like to have Francoise around.
| | 06:48 | In any case, a lot of good stuff and this is
where we live today and we live and we travel a lot.
| | 06:54 | We have got a very good
life and we enjoy ourself.
| | 06:57 | I had been such a lucky guy, I really have.
Small steps, but I did get to this place
| | 07:03 | and I would never have imagined
that I'd be siting here and talking with
| | 07:06 | you today from this position.
| | 07:08 | I'm in my early 70's now and it's been
quite a ride and a wonderful one and
| | 07:14 | I enjoy starting each day in this job.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Portfolio Highlights| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:03 | Douglas Kirkland: What I am going to do is, first,
I am going to start showing you some pictures,
| | 00:08 | and I am going to talk about them.
| | 00:11 | I am going to start with my high
school years and even before that.
| | 00:14 | So I am going to be talking and
showing you and here they are.
| | 00:20 | These are some of the pictures I took
at a high school basketball game and
| | 00:24 | this was again, trying to
make it a little different.
| | 00:27 | I got a light and I had a friend up,
I wired them up, the light over with a long cable,
| | 00:35 | and these were flashbulbs,
this was before strobe.
| | 00:38 | I mean strobe had barely been invented.
| | 00:41 | And I had them up above and I think
I shot like four pictures that night.
| | 00:46 | After each one, he had to
unscrew the bulb and put a new one in.
| | 00:49 | It's a very -- I'll be quick about this,
but one of the players complained that
| | 00:54 | just when he'd get up there,
the light would flash in their eyes.
| | 00:58 | And so the referee came over to me and
said, can't you do something about that?
| | 01:02 | And I said, well, it's my light.
| | 01:04 | I mean I have to have it.
| | 01:05 | And he said, well, just, let's just
say you've made it a little dimmer.
| | 01:08 | He wanted to me to say that to keep people
off his neck, which -- so that's why he said,
| | 01:13 | you do what you need to do.
But anyway, this was exciting for me.
| | 01:17 | Photography for me is really
a passion from this very day.
| | 01:21 | This is my friend Seroff Hugard.
| | 01:23 | I had a Rolleicord camera as well,
that I bought over a period of
| | 01:28 | like couple of years.
| | 01:29 | I ordered it in a mail-order catalog and it
came and this is my one of my close friends.
| | 01:35 | There is a very funny thing
I have got to point out here.
| | 01:38 | We didn't have strobes.
Again, this is flashbulbs.
| | 01:40 | So I got one flashbulb there and with the
flashbulb, you don't get the ball like that.
| | 01:48 | So what did I do?
| | 01:49 | I taped it on there.
| | 01:51 | I wanted to make sure I got it.
| | 01:53 | And my friend Seroff was a very good
model and he really look like he was doing it.
| | 01:58 | What's really exciting was that
I sent this picture in and it won a
| | 02:04 | National High School Award. Not in Canada, but
in the States, which was even bigger, a bigger deal.
| | 02:10 | I think there were like 10
awards and I was number 2.
| | 02:13 | I wasn't number 1, but I mean that's cool.
| | 02:16 | I mean that was so exciting.
| | 02:18 | It's just that's where photography came
for me and what it means to me to this day.
| | 02:22 | First trip to Europe.
| | 02:23 | I was working with a
journalist named Art Buchwald.
| | 02:27 | Everything I do, I tried my best.
| | 02:29 | Even if it's a nothing
assignment, I want to make it count.
| | 02:33 | And that's the way I feel in
life, as far as I am concerned.
| | 02:36 | Because if you don't try, it's not as much fun.
| | 02:39 | But if you push the limits and
see where you can go to, you will be
| | 02:43 | surprised how far you get.
| | 02:44 | I mean that's why I am standing here today.
| | 02:45 | If I hadn't pushed the limits,
I would never have gotten to where I am.
| | 02:49 | This lady is called, her name is Marilyn Monroe.
| | 02:52 | And probably of all the people I've
photographed, she is the one who gets
| | 02:55 | the most attention and interests people the most.
| | 02:58 | There is where I perched myself on a
stairway coming up here and it was going into
| | 03:01 | a room and I was able to shoot there
in this rented studio in Hollywood and
| | 03:06 | that's the picture I got.
| | 03:07 | A few others I am going to show you
here, but this is probably more than
| | 03:12 | any other shoot.
| | 03:13 | The one that put me on the map.
| | 03:15 | And that's how we finished the night.
| | 03:19 | Coco Chanel; we have a book
coming out on Coco Chanel.
| | 03:23 | Coco, they called her, Mademoiselle.
| | 03:24 | The people around here did, and there she is.
| | 03:28 | She had a lot of pushiness in some ways, but she
ultimately ended up being a great influence upon me.
| | 03:35 | An influence that I carry to this day.
| | 03:37 | I started off shooting fashion
because my office had wanted me to do a
| | 03:42 | journalistic reportage on her
but she wanted her fashion shot.
| | 03:46 | So I started by shooting the fashion.
| | 03:48 | These are some of the pictures I
did just near the Etoile in Paris.
| | 03:52 | It's fun, it's photography and it's --
I just can't get enough of it at this moment.
| | 03:57 | I photographed a lot of people,
celebrities, in motion pictures and entertainment.
| | 04:03 | One of them being Judy Garland.
| | 04:06 | I had her in the studio and I had seen
many sides to her in the course of that month.
| | 04:11 | And I said to her, in your life, I see
you work so hard and I know it's not all
| | 04:16 | happiness as people think it is.
| | 04:19 | And I won't go into the details of it,
but she ended up starting to cry and
| | 04:23 | I was about 6 feet away from her.
| | 04:26 | With my Hasselblad at that time on a
tripod and that's how the picture was done,
| | 04:30 | with a 250 lens on it.
| | 04:31 | This is Ann-Margaret in Las Vegas.
| | 04:34 | She was doing a show there and I got
in the trunk for the car and Francoise
| | 04:40 | drove the car, a Fairlane convertible
down the highway about 60 miles an hour,
| | 04:45 | and I got into the trunk and shot her.
Why 60 miles an hour?, people said.
| | 04:49 | Well, to be honest, look at the way
her hair is blowing back and the way that
| | 04:51 | you feel the rush of the
street or the road under her.
| | 04:55 | That's pushing it, having fun.
| | 04:59 | Photography for me is like breathing,
and if I can't shoot and have fun,
| | 05:04 | it's like somebody has
stopped my ability to breathe.
| | 05:09 | And here we have Virginia
Madsen who lives very close to us.
| | 05:12 | Again I tried to make something happen.
| | 05:14 | So here I have -- I don't
want just another square image.
| | 05:18 | So what do I do with Virginia?
| | 05:20 | I mean many things I did in the
shoot and got a lot of nice pictures.
| | 05:24 | But one of them was just -- we have a
lot of glass in our house. I just had her
| | 05:27 | lean on the window and I took a
fill light and lit her here and
| | 05:32 | that's daylight behind it.
| | 05:33 | That's fun! I enjoy photography.
| | 05:38 | Okay, John Lennon. More experiences that are
beyond my comprehension almost, even though
| | 05:43 | I stand here having done them.
| | 05:45 | I sometimes look at all these
material and I say, did somebody else do it?
| | 05:49 | Have there been three of me? I don't know.
| | 05:51 | Anyway we were in Spain and also in Germany
working on a film called 'How I Won The War'.
| | 05:55 | There is another one back at his hotel.
| | 05:58 | This is Francis Ford Coppola and this man back
here is George Lucas and San Francisco behind them.
| | 06:07 | I was doing a story on directors and
I said I wanted to photograph these
| | 06:11 | group called Zoetrope and the management at
Look and said, no, they are not interesting.
| | 06:17 | Do the Hollywood people.
| | 06:18 | We want the real directors.
| | 06:20 | I said, I kept pushing it.
| | 06:22 | And finally they said, okay, we'll let
you do that shoot of that Francis Ford,
| | 06:28 | whatever his name is, but if
you do it, you better really knock
| | 06:31 | our socks off with what you do.
| | 06:34 | So I took a fish eye lens and here is
San Francisco around behind them and
| | 06:39 | went up on the highest building in the city
at that time and I shot it and pushed the limit.
| | 06:48 | Don't be square, don't confine yourself.
| | 06:51 | Just see how far you can reach.
| | 06:53 | Orson Welles.
| | 06:54 | Now, Orson Welles.
| | 06:55 | I did have an opportunity to
photograph him and he was huge, embarrassingly big,
| | 07:01 | and he look like he wasn't well,
which he wasn't probably.
| | 07:05 | And I like people to look good.
| | 07:09 | I really want people to
look good in my pictures.
| | 07:11 | Truly I do.
| | 07:14 | I had a look around this place.
| | 07:15 | We were shooting actually in a restaurant,
upstairs in the restaurant. They were closed,
| | 07:18 | and they said we could shoot up there.
| | 07:20 | I had a strobe and a tripod
case with some stands and things on it.
| | 07:28 | I had a piece of black cloth and there was
something like this whiteboard right here,
| | 07:35 | and I just put the black cloth
over it and had him hiding behind it.
| | 07:39 | And that gave him a device, a prop to use,
that you can lean around and also
| | 07:46 | hid a lot of his size.
| | 07:47 | So you have to think on your feet often.
| | 07:49 | And don't just, I as a photographer
say to myself, don't just say,
| | 07:53 | well, it could have been good,
but he looked so horrible that day.
| | 07:57 | It's not good enough.
| | 07:59 | My job as a photographer is to always
invent ways, try to find ways, and reach,
| | 08:04 | and surprise, and have fun.
| | 08:06 | So people will have fun.
| | 08:07 | Because I hope what you are seeing
in these pictures is a lot of my life,
| | 08:11 | you'll enjoy it.
| | 08:12 | Here I am in Northern Italy, this is
with Faye Dunaway, and I don't recommend doing this,
| | 08:16 | but anyway she told me one night
when I was driving her out to the set
| | 08:20 | that one of her favorite things
she loved to do is go fast in a car.
| | 08:23 | I said let's go out and make a
picture that shows that tomorrow.
| | 08:27 | So I had a little convertible and
we went up the next day and I went down
| | 08:31 | the highway about 60 miles an hour, holding
the wheel with one hand, my Nikon with
| | 08:37 | the 20 millimeter lens
on it with the other hand.
| | 08:40 | That's how that was done.
| | 08:41 | But it's having fun, not being
afraid, don't follow the rule books.
| | 08:45 | I mean reach beyond rule books, and
what is tradition and what people expect.
| | 08:51 | Here is another example. This
paparazzi or paparazzo if you prefer,
| | 08:57 | he's up here, it's not just any paparazzo.
It's Peter Sellers and we did a story of
| | 09:02 | Peter Sellers because he loved photography.
| | 09:04 | He was a great comedian,
he loved photography.
| | 09:06 | And this is a friend's car and without
permission on a Sunday, this is a kind of the stuff we did!
| | 09:13 | We went out and jacked the side of the
car to make it look like it was swerving.
| | 09:18 | This is his wife here, Britt Ekland.
| | 09:19 | She got positioned to stand
on the vespa there to make it look like
| | 09:26 | it was moving and nonetheless,
nobody is moving, but it looks like
| | 09:31 | it's moving and that's cool.
| | 09:34 | Let's have fun!
| | 09:36 | And that's what I've been
doing and we still do it to this day.
| | 09:40 | Jack. We sat, we played, we talked,
and I didn't have an assistant with me.
| | 09:46 | TThere was no press agent, just the two of us.
| | 09:49 | Very simple. I had a camera,
and two or three lenses.
| | 09:52 | I had a tripod.
| | 09:54 | I did this with a 180 lens.
I remember it well. In those days, Nikon.
| | 10:00 | It would have been just a Canon today.
| | 10:02 | And this is just a vinyl behind,
reflecting the trees outside.
| | 10:07 | In any case, we talked about stuff and
he first picked up a magnifying glass.
| | 10:13 | He said, I think I'll give you a big
smile and I took that picture, but the one
| | 10:17 | I really like was this one. He said--
and then he picked up a match,
| | 10:20 | he stuck it in his mouth,
and he said, I think I'll smoke a match.
| | 10:22 | Okay, now I was out in L.A., Andy
Warhol was out here, and my job was to
| | 10:29 | photograph him, and he
made a film called 'Trash'.
| | 10:32 | What did I do? I went with 60
millimeter movie camera and shot with that,
| | 10:37 | because I wanted to make a collage.
| | 10:38 | Again I wanted to do a 'Warhol' Warhol.
| | 10:41 | That's what I do.
| | 10:43 | You know, do something, have fun with
your cameras! Really do. Have some passion!
| | 10:48 | So 'Titanic', I worked on that 45 days
also and did a book on it, which sold
| | 10:53 | I think 3,000,000 copies.
It was a wonderful book.
| | 10:56 | And these are some of the images from it.
| | 10:58 | We did a lot of night work, which is not easy.
| | 11:01 | I read the script. I knew there was
this scene was going to be happening when
| | 11:07 | they were dancing and actually, as it
worked out, it happened in only one --
| | 11:12 | it was one take and that's all
that was and I was able to get it.
| | 11:15 | I did it all right.
| | 11:16 | First, know about the scene and know
what it represented and be in the right
| | 11:20 | place, and again not make -- I don't
think I would use a blimp on my camera.
| | 11:25 | I could shoot it but, again, get that one
picture and that one-- of the entire film
| | 11:30 | that's probably one
of the better pictures I did.
| | 11:33 | Okay, now we are over on 'Moulin Rouge.'
| | 11:36 | I am glad-- I had to cut down. Part
of my problem is I have so much material,
| | 11:40 | I get so turned on,
I don't want to show you too much.
| | 11:43 | But anyway, these are from the scenes
during the shoot of Moulin Rouge
| | 11:46 | in Sydney, Australia.
| | 11:48 | Nicole Kidman.
| | 11:53 | We wanted to put that
moon in there and make it look very false.
| | 11:57 | So they sent it to me
and I put it in Photoshop.
| | 11:59 | It's really funny because normally you
want something not to show as false,
| | 12:02 | but it was just the option here.
| | 12:03 | Again, be creative, guys. You have
so many possibilities today with the
| | 12:08 | computers, with all the tools you have.
| | 12:11 | If you are not, it's because
you are limiting yourself.
| | 12:15 | So anyway, that's the end of our show.
| | 12:18 | Here are the Kirklands
photographed by their daughter, Lisa.
| | 12:21 | (Applause.)
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Stills for Movies| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:04 | Douglas Kirkland: I'm sometimes asked how I got
started in photography of movies, shooting movies.
| | 00:10 | And it's an interesting thing because
I always was fascinated by movies, but
| | 00:14 | didn't expect I would ever work around them.
| | 00:16 | It was always the distant Hollywood
and that was always a very exciting idea
| | 00:22 | to be on a film set.
| | 00:23 | Now, I got started working with
different people at Look Magazine and
| | 00:31 | I shot many films.
| | 00:32 | I've worked, by the way, on we figure more
than 160 movies. That's a lot of movies.
| | 00:37 | Now, how do I work on a movie?
| | 00:39 | Well, to begin with, I don't shoot
stills through the film as a still
| | 00:43 | photographer. I work on what
they called special photography, or
| | 00:47 | I'm working for a publication.
| | 00:49 | I've done books on movies such as James
Cameron's Titanic and other films and
| | 00:55 | I've worked on a lot of movies.
| | 00:57 | But in any case, I usually start by
reading the script and understanding the story
| | 01:01 | and determining what the most
important shots would be in the film.
| | 01:07 | Some of those are done as a film,
but very often, they are done
| | 01:11 | separately, apart from the set.
| | 01:13 | I've done them in very small spaces
sometimes, like a room not much bigger
| | 01:20 | than a large elevator when I
had to, because that's where the best
| | 01:24 | light was or something.
| | 01:25 | But generally, they are done during
filming and I must connect with the stars
| | 01:32 | and get along with the crew.
| | 01:35 | Recently, we were in Australia for
seven weeks working on a great film with
| | 01:40 | Nicole Kidman and Hugh
Jackman called Australia.
| | 01:44 | Out there in the outback in a desert-like
area in the North West of Australia, in
| | 01:50 | the Kimberley area, pretty exciting stuff.
| | 01:53 | We're living as a group and you
become like a family and that's all part of
| | 01:59 | what it's like out there.
| | 02:02 | I've enjoyed doing this.
| | 02:04 | As I say, some movies I've loved;
| | 02:06 | others, I liked much less.
| | 02:09 | The interesting thing is you can be
sort of a hero if a film ends up being
| | 02:14 | successful, or you can be sort of want to
hide your face if it hasn't done too well.
| | 02:21 | You're either benefited or you are in
trouble as a result of the success of a film
| | 02:27 | or the failure of it.
| | 02:29 | But what am I doing
when I'm working on a movie?
| | 02:32 | I'm an observer of the movie and I
come in with a photojournalist's outlook
| | 02:36 | generally, which I
supplement with some portraiture.
| | 02:40 | In a few words, that's the
key to how I work on a film set.
| | 02:44 | I come in with open eyes and you have
to get all the-- connect with all of the crew,
| | 02:51 | and the director and certainly
with the principals, the stars, and
| | 02:55 | all of the makeup people,
and part of it is the PR job.
| | 02:58 | You have to be part of the group.
| | 03:00 | They have to be comfortable with you,
because if they aren't, if that world is not,
| | 03:05 | you're finished.
| | 03:07 | So when I arrive at a film set
to start working, the first thing I do is
| | 03:11 | try to meet usually the first
assistant director, if I haven't already met him,
| | 03:15 | the director, and then go through
everybody because those are the people
| | 03:21 | that will allow you to get your pictures or not.
| | 03:23 | Now I have one story I want to tell you.
| | 03:25 | This happened a couple of times
with this particular director.
| | 03:29 | My fast friend, Baz
Luhrmann, wonderful director.
| | 03:32 | He did many films like Romeo and Juliet,
he did Moulin Rouge, which I worked on,
| | 03:39 | and most recently, he has done Australia.
| | 03:45 | The wonderful thing about Baz is he just does
something that really helps somebody like myself.
| | 03:50 | He knows my work and fortunately, he
respects it and mutual respect is very important.
| | 03:55 | You have to respect the people working
there and fortunately, if they respect you,
| | 04:00 | you have a great
opportunity to make good pictures.
| | 04:04 | So Baz has done this on both
Moulin Rouge and Australia.
| | 04:08 | He got on the microphone the day I
arrived and announced to everybody that
| | 04:13 | Douglas Kirkland had come
here and how lucky they were.
| | 04:17 | He was was going to do work that
would be very beneficial to the movie.
| | 04:21 | Once you have somebody do that
for you, you're in good shape.
| | 04:26 | So, that's kind of the world I
live in and that's how I work.
| | 04:29 | But again, it's always connections with
the people, connections with everybody.
| | 04:33 | I don't care if a guy is digging a hole.
| | 04:35 | I want to be friends with him and see
how he does it better, because he probably
| | 04:40 | has some interesting things to show you.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| In Print| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:04 | Douglas Kirkland: I was lucky. I got started at Look.
I later went to Life and then did a lot of other work.
| | 00:09 | I found these yesterday
looking through some things,
| | 00:12 | and this is a stack of Look magazine.
| | 00:13 | These are some of my favorites.
| | 00:15 | This is a special issue I did in Japan
| | 00:18 | at the time the Olympics were going
to be on, and we had this painted.
| | 00:22 | I got a sign painter to paint this sign
here, this calligraphy, which basically
| | 00:26 | says Welcome or basically it's Welcome.
| | 00:32 | All these pictures in here are lots of ads of
course, because that's what kept them going.
| | 00:36 | But here's pictures like
this. I did all of these.
| | 00:39 | That's a sort of thing I did.
| | 00:42 | And not only, I love to --
I created a studio for that.
| | 00:47 | Here's another one. This was fun.
| | 00:48 | This is a Wright Brothers airplane.
| | 00:52 | From the blueprints. They found
the blueprints or plans and rebuilt it,
| | 00:57 | and then putting Volkswagen engines
in it and they flew these during the
| | 01:01 | filming of a motion picture called
Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines.
| | 01:07 | In any case these are a lot of them.
| | 01:09 | I mean, here's some fashion I did for Look.
| | 01:14 | Here's a kind of a funny one right here.
This was a little ahead of its time.
| | 01:19 | This is Lucille Ball, and this is how we did it.
| | 01:23 | We put her through the TV set and
then this is for a TV issue of Look,
| | 01:28 | and it's sort of saying, don't touch the dial.
| | 01:31 | Interesting thing is magazines come and
go and you hope to have something with
| | 01:35 | greater permanence that stays on library
shelves and shelves at people's homes.
| | 01:40 | And we've done -- I think the
next one will be our fourteenth book.
| | 01:44 | And that's very fulfilling because
that's where you put everything that you do,
| | 01:49 | and it has a greater lasting power.
| | 01:51 | I think there is also more
respect given to people who do books.
| | 01:56 | I am going to show you a few of them,
and just talk about books, three or four
| | 02:00 | different ones right here that I've done.
| | 02:03 | This is the biggest and this was the hardest.
| | 02:06 | It took 12 years to get this book done.
| | 02:09 | My first book.
| | 02:10 | I had all the material, but
I couldn't speak the language of publishers.
| | 02:15 | So we've got nice pictures.
There I am with Faye Dunaway.
| | 02:19 | Some of these pictures you've seen,
maybe on projections and different places.
| | 02:22 | What I'm just telling is
I've worked a lot in astronomy.
| | 02:26 | This is the Milky Way.
| | 02:28 | I've done that, so we put
it in the front of this book.
| | 02:31 | This is my wonderful friend Elizabeth Taylor.
| | 02:34 | By the way, Elizabeth is the one that
really got me in photographing movie stars.
| | 02:38 | I was with her and I went with a
journalist to see if I could get pictures of her.
| | 02:47 | At the end of the interview which
he did, she had said no pictures.
| | 02:51 | I just went to her, looked her right
in the eye and said, Elizabeth, I am new
| | 02:55 | with this magazine-- that magazine was
Look Magazine at the beginning of my career,
| | 02:59 | and in the beginning of the 60s.
| | 03:01 | And I said, just imagine what it
would mean to me if you gave me an
| | 03:04 | opportunity to photograph you.
| | 03:06 | She did. I photographed her.
| | 03:08 | That was the beginning of my
career photographing stars.
| | 03:12 | Here's Marilyn Monroe. Maurice
Chevalier. I had lot of fun with him in Paris.
| | 03:16 | We went all over Paris together.
| | 03:18 | I'm just flipping pages.
| | 03:20 | Here's Catherine Deneuve and it
goes on like that, lots of stories.
| | 03:25 | So, that's that book.
| | 03:26 | And so I got that book done and they
always say once you get the first book done
| | 03:31 | it's always easier to get the others done.
| | 03:33 | And it has been, because today with the
computer we really do a lot of the work.
| | 03:37 | We do our own scans.
| | 03:39 | This is my first computer book.
| | 03:40 | This is back in the early 90s.
| | 03:43 | I learned Photoshop and so I
started to have a lot of fun with it.
| | 03:46 | So I got my pictures and put them
together and I don't agree necessarily with
| | 03:51 | some of the effects we did, but
we had a lot fun with the computer.
| | 03:55 | By the way, you know who's class I took,
just months before this, was Lynda's,
| | 03:59 | of lynda.com.
| | 04:01 | She was the one who inspired me,
frankly, and I'm telling you the truth.
| | 04:06 | Different pictures, different effects,
and I wrote a text predicting that this
| | 04:11 | was going to change our world,
the computer that is, and I think it has.
| | 04:16 | Okay, we go onto Marilyn.
| | 04:19 | I wrote this called An Evening With
Marilyn and it's all about the different
| | 04:23 | things that happened.
| | 04:24 | This has been printed in about
five or six different languages.
| | 04:27 | And again we have pictures of
Marilyn and lots of things.
| | 04:32 | You have another way of expressing yourself.
| | 04:34 | This is our latest book, which I may have
mentioned to you earlier, but it's Freeze Frame.
| | 04:38 | It is 50 years of my career
working around the movies.
| | 04:41 | So this is the sort of thing I do.
| | 04:45 | This is a more permanent statement
than just a magazine piece or a newspaper.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| On Cameras| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:04 | Douglas Kirkland: I have been doing this a
long time and I'm probably no different than you.
| | 00:07 | I have my favorite cameras and each
camera has a story as far as I am concerned.
| | 00:12 | The camera that I took my very first
picture with was this Box Brownie.
| | 00:15 | This is my parent's Box Brownie.
| | 00:17 | It is my parents' Box Brownie,
it's 116 film, look at this.
| | 00:19 | This is how we held it closed
with this little elastic here.
| | 00:25 | And when you would push it down, you
look at this little thing up here, push it.
| | 00:30 | And they used to say that George
Eastman named his company from the sound of
| | 00:33 | that shutter, Kodak.
| | 00:37 | That's what it was imagined.
| | 00:38 | Anyway, let's see.
The most primitive of my cameras.
| | 00:42 | These are couple of others I have.
| | 00:43 | This is Kodak Duaflex, and I guess
everybody in the 50s when I was beginning had
| | 00:49 | an Argoflex one time or another.
| | 00:51 | Today, my principle cameras are the Canons.
| | 00:55 | This is the highest end Canon.
It's called the 1Ds Mark III.
| | 00:59 | It's around 8 grand. It's an
$8,000 camera but boy, is it ever good.
| | 01:03 | It works in very little light
without grain, which is now called
| | 01:06 | noise, electronically.
| | 01:08 | It gives you, believe it or not, if you are
technical, you would know what I am saying.
| | 01:12 | 16 bit file, 126 megs, every time
you push the shutter. 126 megs,
| | 01:18 | that's a lot of information,
and you can make these prints huge.
| | 01:22 | But frankly there are times when I don't
want that glorious high-end camera and
| | 01:27 | I use a camera like this.
| | 01:29 | This is the 40D. This is a much less
expensive camera, this is about 8 grand,
| | 01:34 | this is about a lower $1000, maybe
$1200, something like that. So much camera.
| | 01:39 | Now you don't always need these huge files.
| | 01:41 | This gives 28 meg file, and I often
use it and it works just perfectly.
| | 01:47 | Again, they all work well.
| | 01:50 | I mean it's what you do with them, and
don't get ever caught up in the numbers race.
| | 01:55 | It's like who's is bigger than --
which horsepower is right.
| | 02:00 | Don't always grab the biggest one because
sometimes this is lighter, less expensive, and
| | 02:05 | does a very good job.
| | 02:06 | Here's a love of mine.
| | 02:08 | It's an 8x10 Deardorff. It was made in
1942, and believe it or not, I've started
| | 02:14 | using that camera again.
| | 02:15 | It has a very special look.
| | 02:17 | I was working on a movie in Australia
called Australia this past summer, and
| | 02:23 | I took this to photograph the
Aboriginals, the Australian Indians we'll call them.
| | 02:28 | And also some of the people in the cast
like Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman and
| | 02:33 | it gives very shallow-- you might call it
depth of focus, but it's really called
| | 02:37 | depth of field technically.
| | 02:39 | It means my eye would be sharp, my ears
would be soft, and that's a very beautiful look.
| | 02:44 | It just gives very beautiful negatives,
and then I often work with this RZ Mamiya
| | 02:51 | because once a month I photograph a
director and this is the camera I use for it.
| | 02:56 | And this gives a negative 6x7
centimeters in size. I can show that to you.
| | 03:01 | That's the size of the picture
we shoot. It gives beautiful results.
| | 03:05 | I have been working for Kodak
shooting those people for 18 years now,
| | 03:09 | and of course for Kodak I shoot film
because that's what they are making.
| | 03:13 | And the name of the series
is called the On Film series.
| | 03:16 | I am going to set this down right here.
| | 03:18 | This is the zoom lens on it by the way.
| | 03:20 | And again zoom lenses have certain
value because you can get two shots
| | 03:25 | without moving in minutes, so that's
part of the glory of it, but these are all
| | 03:30 | my children, my home, my love.
| | 03:34 | A photographer identifies so much with
his or her equipment because you'll often
| | 03:39 | be only as good as your equipment is.
| | 03:40 | I mean, you do the best you can,
the equipment won't do it alone.
| | 03:45 | But when you are in sync whether it's
you have a beautiful woman or a
| | 03:49 | great looking guy, everything is perfect,
and then you bring the camera up,
| | 03:55 | it focuses beautifully and you
feel the satisfaction going to it.
| | 03:59 | You know, you hear that click, or
series of click sometimes, and you know
| | 04:02 | you've got something very special.
| | 04:04 | That for me is a great deal of
what photography is all about.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Large Format Shoot| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:03 | Douglas Kirkland: This camera is an old
friend of mine. I've had it many years.
| | 00:07 | That makes a picture 8x10 inches, quite large.
| | 00:10 | That's the size of the
negative or chrome that we make.
| | 00:14 | What is the result of that?
| | 00:15 | We get enormous clarity, even probably
sharper than we get with the latest digital cameras.
| | 00:20 | I have a special passionate spot
in my heart for the digital cameras.
| | 00:23 | But there is a tradition
here and a different look.
| | 00:26 | One thing, we have these swings
and tilts, very important to anyone
| | 00:29 | photographing architecture, because
you can make the lines perfectly straight,
| | 00:33 | something that architects really like,
prefer, and in many cases insist upon.
| | 00:38 | So that's one of the reasons this has
traditionally been a camera for this sort of work.
| | 00:44 | Now how did I pick this location and why?
| | 00:46 | Well to begin with, Steven is a very
close friend and a brilliant architect,
| | 00:50 | internationally known, and we're in
his home that he built for himself or
| | 00:54 | had built three years -- it was
finished about three years ago.
| | 00:57 | You have this wonderful stairway with
an opening and it's got this great
| | 01:03 | look to it, and it's quite wonderful.
| | 01:05 | I'm just going to quickly show you what
I've got in a digital image, just so
| | 01:07 | you can see, there it is.
| | 01:10 | So I used this almost like a Polaroid.
| | 01:14 | We don't shoot Polaroid so much anymore,
but I'm going to hold this as steady
| | 01:16 | as I can and you get a look at -- that
was how I got the idea of using the stairway.
| | 01:22 | It's an element of design.
| | 01:24 | And Steven is a great designer,
so I want to emphasize design.
| | 01:28 | There's so much in his home. It's open.
| | 01:30 | It's the best of California architecture.
| | 01:33 | That's why I'm happy to be here.
| | 01:35 | This is our series of artists.
| | 01:37 | Steven is not just an
architect, he's a great artist.
| | 01:39 | That's why we are here today and why
we are shooting both with the 8x10 as
| | 01:42 | well as the digital.
| | 01:44 | Look at how beautiful you are, Steven.
| | 01:47 | Now you'll start to understand what we're doing.
| | 01:49 | I'm intentionally
blowing the background out.
| | 01:53 | Steven Ehrlich: But I like
the fact that it's so abstract.
| | 01:57 | It's like I'm in
a fog with that geometry.
| | 02:00 | Yeah, if I stick around you, I get it!
| | 02:02 | Douglas Kirkland: No, you're wonderful.
| | 02:05 | This is your house and this is your
picture in many ways so...
| | 02:09 | And then I would like to look
through this open doorway.
| | 02:14 | Steady, sure, perfect!
| | 02:17 | Let's put a black and white in there, please.
| | 02:20 | I'm one of the old guys.
| | 02:21 | Okay, relax. Are you comfortable?
| | 02:23 | Yes, yes, yes, yes, that's it,
yes, steady, yes, perfect!
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Relating to the Subject| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:47 | Woo-hooo! That was wonderful. Thank you!
| | 00:54 | Douglas Kirkland: On a day like this, we are
shooting this beautiful, wonderful, Amico
| | 00:59 | and she is great, she is a beautiful dancer.
| | 01:02 | Now how do I get started on a shoot like this?
| | 01:05 | To begin with, I try to
remain open to everything.
| | 01:08 | Now, I remember one thing is extremely
critical for me and that is that she is the star.
| | 01:14 | Many photographers make a mistake of
thinking that they are the superstar and
| | 01:18 | everything evolves around them.
| | 01:21 | That's in my opinion a great mistake,
because you as a photographer are
| | 01:25 | important, but the most important person
really there is the subject or subjects
| | 01:29 | if you are more than one.
| | 01:31 | And you are there to record, you may
setup a condition that works and makes them
| | 01:35 | comfortable, but
ultimately, they make the picture.
| | 01:38 | And you do have a look.
| | 01:40 | What's my look for Amigo today?
| | 01:43 | It's beauty, grace, youth,
this glorious hair she has.
| | 01:47 | Yeah, I am sure you noticed that.
| | 01:49 | That hair is fantastic.
| | 01:51 | These are all the elements that
move me and what goes into my pictures.
| | 01:55 | It's not just taking a picture or catching
a picture; it's trying to create a picture.
| | 02:00 | And part of that, sometimes with dancers
especially, is watching her creativity
| | 02:04 | and following it and catching the most
important glimpses of it and movements.
| | 02:11 | I am not certainly trained in ballet,
but I have been around it a lot and
| | 02:14 | I certainly know about photography and
I know what I like is in a picture and
| | 02:19 | this wonderful lady is doing it.
| | 02:21 | I also want to point out another thing.
| | 02:23 | As I watched her, as she was warming
up, she was over at the side here.
| | 02:28 | I saw another picture there.
| | 02:29 | I mean, that wasn't the
picture I started to make.
| | 02:31 | I initially thought we would be
working on this black seamless background.
| | 02:35 | But what I did is I photographed her
over here against the wall as she was
| | 02:41 | stretching and warming up,
and that made another picture.
| | 02:44 | So I didn't get just one or two pictures today.
| | 02:47 | I got that other look, which
is more of a journalistic look.
| | 02:50 | It's more journalistic
than what we've done here.
| | 02:52 | This is a studio type picture, but I was
watching. Always be watching, always be listening.
| | 02:57 | Those are other tips I
would suggest that you do.
| | 03:02 | You try to adapt to people.
| | 03:03 | If people have certain
sensitivities, that's good, but if they aren't
| | 03:10 | responding to whatever you are doing,
you have to try and figure out what you
| | 03:14 | should be doing.
| | 03:15 | And how you connect with them,
because I say it again, I feel it's never
| | 03:22 | enough of it.
| | 03:23 | You're only as good as
your connection with them.
| | 03:25 | And part of probably what I have
accomplished is by being able to connect with people.
| | 03:31 | I find talking fortunately pretty easy.
| | 03:35 | I can talk, you pick up a fragment
and I could talk about this room,
| | 03:40 | that record player over there, or
anything in here. You can start a
| | 03:45 | conversation, but what's more
important is, it might be what you had for
| | 03:49 | breakfast today, or where is your home?
| | 03:53 | It's who you are and who they are and
then how you connect with each other.
| | 03:57 | You have to be able to look them in the eye
| | 03:59 | and really connect and have them
want to do this, and enjoy doing it.
| | 04:04 | I can sometimes observe and catch a
picture when let's say, if they are
| | 04:08 | filming a movie, but when I am working
on a one-to-one with somebody like I am
| | 04:12 | with Amico, what's important is that
she has to feel that she is the star.
| | 04:20 | She has to know that she is the star.
| | 04:21 | Everything has to evolve around it, and
that for me is the real secret to my work.
| | 04:25 | (Music playing.)
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Digital Darkroom| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:04 | Douglas Kirkland: Okay, here we are.
| | 00:05 | The next stage we move to
the pictures into the computer.
| | 00:09 | We are in Bridge right here.
| | 00:11 | I'm going to just make this big
and we have all these controls.
| | 00:16 | Fortunately, we don't need
a great deal on this one.
| | 00:18 | So I'm just going to open it up as it is
and this is all done within digital.
| | 00:23 | It was done minutes ago, literally.
| | 00:25 | Now, here is one and I haven't looked a
great deal any of these, but this is
| | 00:29 | one which I particularly like.
| | 00:32 | What I would do probably
eventually is crop a little of this off.
| | 00:35 | But why I like it is, again,
a lot of unorthodox things here.
| | 00:42 | Such as, I have a mist filter
on the camera and that's
| | 00:48 | intentional, just to give a glow.
| | 00:51 | It's not done to soften her;
| | 00:52 | she doesn't need it, but it makes a lot
more-- you just see, it gives a glamor
| | 00:58 | to it that wouldn't have otherwise.
| | 00:59 | Isn't she great?
| | 01:00 | Look at the movement.
That's exciting when I see this.
| | 01:03 | This is when photography turns me on
so much and she was great and she was
| | 01:08 | cooperative, she understood it.
| | 01:09 | Let me just show you what I could do here.
| | 01:11 | It's just as an illustration, I will.
| | 01:13 | I'm going to lighten that side here,
because I want to see the shape of her body.
| | 01:19 | That tends to go in there with the hair.
| | 01:20 | With all these possibilities, it's
like the best of art is all here for
| | 01:25 | photographers and photographers like me.
| | 01:27 | That's what's so exciting and I'll
just do a quick save on that and I'll save
| | 01:32 | that for now just on the desktop.
| | 01:35 | So there is one.
| | 01:37 | Now here is another one.
This is interesting.
| | 01:39 | As she was warming up,
I saw her doing these moves.
| | 01:45 | And this is quite cool.
I like this very much.
| | 01:47 | It's hard once if you sit down
here not to do things, because
| | 01:52 | the possibilities are so incredibly
spectacular today with Photoshop as it is.
| | 01:58 | I'm going to darken the edges a little to
give it almost more of the spotlight effect.
| | 02:06 | Now, I am sure anybody who knows
Photoshop knows exactly what I'm doing.
| | 02:13 | I am just trying a Burn tool around
the edges and all pretty simple stuff.
| | 02:18 | Now, I'll do a quick save on that,
and then let's save back there.
| | 02:25 | Now, here we go.
| | 02:26 | I want you to see this.
| | 02:28 | There is the original and there is
what I did with it in a few minutes.
| | 02:32 | Some things work really well,
and others are not as good.
| | 02:36 | But then you know you have got a
home run sometimes and this way,
| | 02:38 | I feel about this one here.
| | 02:40 | I love the way this flows.
| | 02:42 | She is so very good and this was just
done against the wall and we had music
| | 02:50 | playing and for her to move as a dancer
with the music, that's what inspires and
| | 02:56 | that's what makes it happen.
| | 02:57 | Without the music, it wouldn't be the same.
| | 02:59 | This is a very simple picture.
| | 03:00 | This could be the girl next door.
| | 03:03 | Okay now, here is a different type of lighting.
| | 03:04 | I would like you to see that.
| | 03:07 | That's so much different and this
is a more classical type of lighting.
| | 03:10 | This is from another era almost.
| | 03:11 | This is, you got a shadow on the wall
intentionally, we got this here up above her
| | 03:16 | and I'm going to open this one,
because I think it will be interesting.
| | 03:21 | Take a look at it.
| | 03:22 | Now, here we are. I think everything in
contrast and everything is quite satisfactory.
| | 03:27 | By the way, we are working with raw
here, which is simple, and the camera I used
| | 03:33 | to shoot these particular pictures
was the 40D Canon, but a lot of cameras
| | 03:40 | would do it just as well.
| | 03:41 | So here is basically what I would do
to this picture and probably I might
| | 03:46 | darken a little of fraction,
but basically, that is it.
| | 03:52 | This is like pictures from another time.
| | 03:54 | This is not contemporary lighting as such,
or it's maybe, this is more contemporary.
| | 04:01 | But I like it all and there are
times for all types of lighting.
| | 04:04 | I have a gel on this spotlight from
the back, this hair light, and here I have
| | 04:10 | basically I've got one softbox
up above and here we have one softbox
| | 04:15 | plus a fill light on her.
| | 04:18 | So these are some of the pictures we
took in that short while we worked.
| | 04:21 | Very exciting stuff, isn't it?
| | 04:24 | I've always loved what I could do with a computer
and now with the digital cameras that are so good,
| | 04:29 | it's just a whole new profession.
| | 04:31 | I have crossed a lot of periods of time;
| | 04:34 | started very primitive film and here we
are with this most exciting profession
| | 04:39 | today and work and we
have so many possibilities.
| | 04:43 | It's almost unlimited.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| The End Result| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:04 | Douglas Kirkland: Can we take a look at this,
Will, this print that you and Miranda just finished?
| | 00:08 | Wow! That's so exciting for me.
| | 00:10 | I mean, look at the detail, it's really cool.
| | 00:15 | Okay, photography is never-- I would
never have imagined we could do this.
| | 00:19 | Let's go over.
| | 00:20 | Would you hang it on the wall for
us so we can see it a little better?
| | 00:23 | We give it a home here.
| | 00:28 | Will's our specialist because
he is even taller than I am.
| | 00:31 | He is very tall. How tall are you, Will?
| | 00:34 | Will: About 6'4''.
| | 00:35 | Douglas Kirkland: 6'4''. That's what he says.
| | 00:37 | I am 6'3'' and he is much more
than an inch higher than I am.
| | 00:40 | Will: Maybe 6'5''.
| | 00:41 | Douglas Kirkland: Oh! Now the truth is coming out.
| | 00:43 | Okay, let's look at this print.
| | 00:45 | Okay, let's look carefully. I want to
put my glasses on to see the detail.
| | 00:49 | You know, it's interesting, you can
look at every eyelash there. It's amazing.
| | 00:54 | The camera we were shooting with
was not one of the highest res cameras.
| | 00:57 | We have the 1Ds Mark III here.
| | 00:59 | That gives you a 60-meg file, but this is
done with a 28-meg file,on the 40D Canon.
| | 01:05 | You might say, why did you use that?
Because it's easy and when you're shooting
| | 01:09 | a lot, you don't get so many
megabytes as you can't handle them.
| | 01:12 | So for a lot of this work, I still
use the 40D. It's a great camera.
| | 01:16 | Then the print, which has been done so
well by Miranda and Will, is printed
| | 01:22 | on the Z3100 from HP.
| | 01:25 | Anyway, it's good and when I started
photography, I used the big press camera,
| | 01:30 | which you've seen, the 4x5 Speed Graphic.
| | 01:32 | But we got prints that were not this
sharp and I could never have imagined
| | 01:36 | I'd pick up a 35mm sized camera, that was a digital
camera, and get detail like that, endless detail.
| | 01:42 | Look at the graduating tones, it's cool.
| | 01:45 | We are so lucky.
| | 01:46 | This is the best time in history as far as I'm
concerned, in terms of what capabilities we have.
| | 01:52 | Just imagine, we just shot this in
this very room yesterday, one day ago.
| | 01:57 | Here we are, less than 24 hours later,
and it's on the wall in museum condition.
| | 02:02 | And this print, according to Wilhelm
Institute, will last approximately 250 years.
| | 02:08 | Unbelievable.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| A Life in Photography| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:04 | Douglas Kirkland: I had a
grandfather who lived up in Canada.
| | 00:07 | He had one job in his entire
life. Can you imagine that?
| | 00:10 | It was a very simple job.
| | 00:11 | It was of working in a foundry,
but I mean that's unthinkable today.
| | 00:14 | In other words, you will probably have
many career changes in your lifetime and
| | 00:19 | certainly if you are a
photographer, you will too.
| | 00:21 | For me, it hasn't many career change, but
it's been adapting to the world changing.
| | 00:27 | You've heard me say I worked for all
these different types of publications and
| | 00:30 | I fell in love with each of them and I
did the most, but I had one central point
| | 00:34 | and that was always photography.
| | 00:35 | Now, what type of photography do you like to do?
| | 00:38 | What's your favorite type of work?
| | 00:40 | Audience Member: Um. I don't know. Like I'm kind of
interested in kind of like the advertisement look
| | 00:41 | of photography and I want to get more into that.
| | 00:49 | Douglas Kirkland: That's good though, you have a
direction. That's excellent, because I sometimes
| | 00:53 | do the same thing myself.
| | 00:54 | I imagine something and I say, how
can I put these elements together?
| | 00:57 | I'll tell you. It's been made a
lot easier in a time of digital.
| | 01:03 | You can do all those things.
| | 01:04 | There's essentially
nothing that you can't do today.
| | 01:06 | You can do just about
anything, and then which is great.
| | 01:08 | Okay, I'd like -- yeah
| | 01:09 | Audience Member: Do you
ever get intimidated shooting?
| | 01:11 | Douglas Kirkland: Okay,
do I ever get intimidated?
| | 01:12 | Interesting, it's a very excellent question.
| | 01:15 | Do I ever get intimidated?
| | 01:18 | I have when I was younger.
| | 01:19 | But there is an interesting thing
that came over me at a certain point.
| | 01:24 | I said to myself, I've gone
through this war and that war.
| | 01:28 | I am speaking of the shoot wars. Marilyn
Monroe scared me to death in those early days.
| | 01:33 | It really did.
| | 01:34 | Here I was, I would say today,
totally unqualified to be doing that shoot.
| | 01:40 | But I wouldn't let them and
the other people know that.
| | 01:43 | So, I acted like I had the world
on string and I could handle it.
| | 01:49 | I must say that, what I often say to
myself if I've got a big shoot coming up,
| | 01:53 | is I've accomplished all these things, I
can certainly go on and do even bigger things.
| | 01:59 | The interesting thing is, sometimes
when I have been under the maximum stress
| | 02:03 | and I've reached the furthest, that's when
I've even surprised myself. A case in point.
| | 02:07 | Again, I am leveling with you.
| | 02:09 | Those pictures out of Vasquez Rocks.
| | 02:13 | The model -- the two models, the two
people, which was the same girl by the way.
| | 02:18 | We shot out of Vasquez Rocks
and then we shoot her in our studio,
| | 02:21 | then put the two together in Photoshop.
| | 02:24 | That was a really very difficult shoot,
because a lot of things seemed to happen,
| | 02:30 | including that it started raining
when we were out at Vasquez Rocks.
| | 02:34 | But you don't say no. You just keep
doing it and finding a way and you can do it.
| | 02:40 | Am I intimidated?
| | 02:41 | There are people who try to intimidate
me, but the funny thing is occasionally
| | 02:47 | without intending to, I have
intimidated other people and it's not my goal.
| | 02:50 | I'd like to do just the
contrary, just the opposite.
| | 02:52 | But you can be intimidated
if you allow yourself to be.
| | 02:58 | You have to believe in yourself,
and know that you've had a number of
| | 03:01 | accomplishments, which I am sure
everyone of you have had accomplishments.
| | 03:05 | Once you realize it, not to flaunt it, not
to be arrogant, but just to be confident.
| | 03:11 | That is very important. Yes?
| | 03:13 | Audience Member: Do you think that
Photoshop is a positive input on photography?
| | 03:17 | Douglas Kirkland: It has been for me,
but it's misused by certain people.
| | 03:22 | Audience Member: Being able to
like edit out people's imperfections.
| | 03:24 | Douglas Kirkland: Ah that, it depends.
| | 03:27 | It can be used badly and it can be
used very badly, as a matter of fact.
| | 03:32 | But for me, I've lived the other way and boy,
I tell you I am glad I have it today. I really am.
| | 03:38 | Because I knew the computer, because
I've used it for word processing and
| | 03:41 | everything, but suddenly
I saw the possibilities.
| | 03:45 | It was my darkroom, it was my repronar,
which was a device we used to have for
| | 03:49 | photographing or
rephotographing chromes, building pictures.
| | 03:54 | It was all that and so much more.
| | 03:56 | I felt emancipated personally by the computer.
| | 04:00 | And the other thing.
| | 04:02 | The other thing is, I would do work on my own,
and that usually ends up really paying off,
| | 04:08 | because if I really care about something and
the guys who work with me will tell you this.
| | 04:12 | I don't do this just for money alone.
| | 04:15 | I mean, you want to make a living, you
want to keep going, but I'll do anything
| | 04:19 | if it's a creative thing to do.
| | 04:23 | Again, on the computer we are
particularly able to do that.
| | 04:27 | It's not the soul thing that Photoshop and
digital is around, but it certainly helps.
| | 04:33 | But no single area is the most important.
| | 04:38 | They're all important.
| | 04:39 | It's a passion for life.
| | 04:42 | It really is.
| | 04:43 | One of the great things about
photography, it releases you to go and engage in
| | 04:47 | all these things, and meet people, and
do things, and that's what I have enjoyed
| | 04:50 | so much through the years, through my career.
| | 04:53 | Yes? This young man in the back row.
| | 04:54 | Audience Member: In your interpretation of
every time you go on a shoot, and you're shooting
| | 05:00 | thousands of people in your lifetime,
is there certain key elements that you
| | 05:06 | always take with you, that's embedded in
your soul that it works for you every time?
| | 05:10 | Douglas Kirkland: What is embedded in me,
| | 05:13 | and I don't mean to overly simplify it, is
frankly a love of people and a love of life.
| | 05:18 | I hope you've seen it.
| | 05:19 | If you think back to what you're seeing
tonight, you generally see they're happy
| | 05:23 | pictures, of people having fun.
| | 05:25 | I want to operate spontaneously
as possible with any camera I use.
| | 05:30 | Now, I switched from Nikon to Canon
years ago and first, they wanted to
| | 05:36 | just give me everything.
| | 05:37 | I said, I am not sure I want it.
| | 05:39 | That's quite an offer, isn't it?
| | 05:40 | But I took one camera and
carried it around, all day long.
| | 05:44 | It's like a cowboy living with his
gun and that's basically what I did.
| | 05:52 | I wanted to know every bump on it,
every ripple on the side of it, what it
| | 05:57 | meant, and how it felt like.
| | 05:59 | I leave my newest camera sitting on my
desk just so I can pick it up, and feel it,
| | 06:05 | and try it, and test it, and see
what its limitations are, what it will do.
| | 06:08 | I want it to be part of me.
| | 06:10 | You don't have to have necessarily the latest, but
you have to be one with your equipment, you really do.
| | 06:15 | So, yeah, I can think if I am
photographing any individual in here, I can think
| | 06:20 | of you or you, and not have
to worry about too many things.
| | 06:25 | I mean, I want it all to flow together
and that's been very important to me.
| | 06:31 | Know your equipment, know your lights,
know anything you want it to do.
| | 06:34 | You are empowered if you have that.
| | 06:38 | If you don't have that down, if you don't have
that wired, you are going to be limited. Yes?
| | 06:45 | Audience Member: Where did
you go after high school?
| | 06:49 | Douglas Kirkland: Okay.
I went to a lot of places.
| | 06:51 | To begin with I never held a job very long.
| | 06:53 | I was curious, and I kept changing
jobs, and I was always dissatisfied.
| | 06:58 | I left after one year of high school
where I was in Canada and then I went to a
| | 07:04 | special school in Buffalo, New York.
| | 07:05 | It was the only one of its type at the moment.
| | 07:07 | It was a vocational high
school teaching photography.
| | 07:10 | So, we'd spent half a day with traditional
subjects and then half a day with photography.
| | 07:15 | I started having dreams.
| | 07:17 | One of the dreams was I
wanted to work on a newspaper.
| | 07:21 | I dreamed of working, I think Denver
Post I think was the one I wanted to work on.
| | 07:25 | I don't why the Denver Post.
| | 07:26 | It was ridiculous with no reason, but it
seemed like a cool place to live and work.
| | 07:31 | So that one, and I never got to
Denver Post, but I did get a small paper.
| | 07:38 | First a weekly, later a daily.
| | 07:40 | You know what's the funny thing?
| | 07:43 | I've got to tell you something.
| | 07:46 | This is the con part of me.
| | 07:47 | I convinced myself of something.
| | 07:49 | When I do that, I find this strange
thing. I find I can make it happen and
| | 07:55 | that's what I've often done.
| | 07:56 | I thought, I said, I wanted to work in
a newspaper. I looked at what they were
| | 08:00 | doing, thought, how can I do it better?
| | 08:03 | That's what I did. I was able to, and I was
able to convince people through my conviction.
| | 08:08 | Now, the other thing I'll say to you,
just probably in winding up here, I must
| | 08:12 | not keep you here too long.
| | 08:14 | It is basically, you have to, as I've
said earlier, you have to enjoy yourself,
| | 08:19 | care about it, have a lot of interests,
and the great thing about photography is
| | 08:24 | you're going to expand
interests through photography.
| | 08:27 | You name it, if you want to look at
children, you could take a camera and just
| | 08:31 | photograph children and do it in such an
unusual way, you'll create a whole new look.
| | 08:36 | Then you have to say, how am
I going to market that work?
| | 08:38 | Well, maybe you could find maybe
you can put a book project here, or maybe
| | 08:43 | you do a show, whatever you want.
| | 08:46 | There is not anything that you
can't find a way to make happen.
| | 08:50 | So, it's called inventing yourself
and there have been many inventions of
| | 08:56 | Douglas Kirkland and they haven't
stopped and I don't think they'll ever stop.
| | 09:00 | Okay, thank you very much!
| | 09:02 | Nice meeting you!
| | 09:03 | (Applause.)
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Interview with Lynda| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:06 | Lynda Weinman: Well, Douglas, it's so
wonderful to sit here with you and we actually have a
| | 00:09 | little bit of history together.
| | 00:11 | I guess I was with you when you
first discovered digital photography.
| | 00:15 | Douglas Kirkland: You were more
than with me; you led me into it.
| | 00:18 | Lynda Weinman: You know, I mean we were both at
the Creative Center, the Center for Creative Imaging.
| | 00:23 | Douglas Kirkland: In Camden, Maine.
| | 00:24 | Lynda Weinman: That's right.
| | 00:25 | Douglas Kirkland: 1991; May, 1991.
| | 00:27 | Lynda Weinman: That's correct.
| | 00:28 | The purpose of this center, Kodak had
created this center so that they could
| | 00:33 | really enter the digital age.
| | 00:35 | They were concerned that digital
photography might become popular.
| | 00:39 | I mean at that time, it didn't exist
yet and this was their effort to train the
| | 00:46 | existing photographers of that era in digital.
| | 00:50 | Douglas Kirkland: And graphic arts people as well.
| | 00:52 | Lynda Weinman: That's right. So this was an invitation
-only workshop and I actually was not one of the
| | 00:58 | instructors in the first day's workshop.
| | 01:02 | And the first day's workshop sold out
so then the day after, I led the workshop
| | 01:07 | and that was the one that
you were able to attend.
| | 01:09 | Douglas Kirkland: Now, let me tell you.
| | 01:11 | I never got a chance to sit in front of a
computer because I was signing Marilyn Monroe prints
| | 01:15 | and posters for people and they
had these up and everybody wanted one,
| | 01:20 | and there would be longer lines of people.
| | 01:21 | I never got away from that
desk. That's all I was doing.
| | 01:23 | Lynda Weinman: And that was why you
weren't in that first day's class.
| | 01:25 | Douglas Kirkland: That's right.
| | 01:26 | You had an opening, you had a free
computer or two and that was when I slipped in
| | 01:31 | and that was the day that changed my
life as a photographer, it really did.
| | 01:34 | Lynda Weinman: I totally remember on the
drive to the center with you and having a
| | 01:40 | discussion about how you were sort of
skeptical about digital photography and
| | 01:44 | you didn't think it would ever take
off and you didn't really think that
| | 01:48 | Photoshop, this newfangled Photoshop thing, was
going to be anything that would ever appeal to you.
| | 01:53 | And then on the way home, it was a
totally different experience because it
| | 01:57 | truly did seem like it transformed all
your thinking about how you were going
| | 02:01 | to continue to work.
| | 02:02 | Douglas Kirkland: Well, I have used
computers since about 1980 actually, a long time,
| | 02:07 | but they were just for word processing.
| | 02:10 | I saw it as the pixelized image that I saw
for word processing and it didn't occur
| | 02:16 | to me that I didn't know about Photoshop.
| | 02:19 | I think as I recall it was
Photoshop 2.2. It was very, very early.
| | 02:24 | Lynda Weinman: It was very early.
| | 02:25 | Douglas Kirkland: And you were
the person who introduced me.
| | 02:29 | We rode up there together.
| | 02:30 | I was questioning it, we rode back and
I was asking a lot of more questions.
| | 02:34 | Lynda Weinman: That's correct and even in
those days, we didn't have digital cameras yet.
| | 02:39 | So the entire workflow was so different;
| | 02:41 | you would have to scan your image into the
computer and that was when you would do the manipulation.
| | 02:45 | Douglas Kirkland: With minimal
possibilities even in the scanners.
| | 02:48 | Scanners have come a long ways in the years too.
| | 02:50 | Lynda Weinman: That's true, and prints.
| | 02:51 | Douglas Kirkland: Yeah. Oh, prints.
| | 02:52 | Lynda Weinman: It just wasn't viable.
| | 02:53 | Douglas Kirkland: Oh, we did --
we had dye-sub prints from Kodak.
| | 02:57 | They were okay for the time, but of
course, they didn't have any longevity at all
| | 03:00 | as compared with what we have today,
with today's inkjet printers. High end
| | 03:03 | inkjet printers are amazing. We get 200
-300 years. We could hope that it would
| | 03:08 | last six months back in
those early dye-sub days.
| | 03:10 | Lynda Weinman: Absolutely.
| | 03:12 | Douglas Kirkland: Dye-
sublimation to be specific.
| | 03:13 | Lynda Weinman: All these old terms like,
remember the SyQuest disks and the Bernoulli disks?
| | 03:19 | If you think about it, it's only 2008
today and this was 1991 and so it's not a
| | 03:26 | lot of years, but so much has
changed in that short amount of time.
| | 03:29 | Douglas Kirkland: The world is changing and it's
interesting what changed with all of those transitions.
| | 03:33 | I am a guy who grew up with film cameras,
I learned to process film in the darkroom
| | 03:39 | and do all of these
things and that was my world.
| | 03:44 | Today, there's very little of that done.
| | 03:46 | Now, people ask me, if I still shoot film,
I do occasionally for certain handful
| | 03:51 | of clients or for sometimes a nostalgic look.
| | 03:54 | Sometimes I work with a 8x10 camera
even, to get that very special yesterday look.
| | 03:59 | But most of my work is done
personally with 1Ds Mark III or 40D Cannon.
| | 04:05 | But then there are other great cameras too,
but the whole thinking is different.
| | 04:10 | You see something, you conceive it, you
see it and you immediately see what you
| | 04:16 | have been able to do, which is
especially good if you are teaching because you
| | 04:20 | have an immediate reference.
| | 04:23 | And you are still there and you can
look up at what you have done, and you know
| | 04:27 | whether it's good or not good and
that's very helpful in teaching.
| | 04:28 | Lynda Weinman: It sure is. I mean I just don't
think today's generation can really appreciate
| | 04:34 | what it was like in the past where you
had to wait and put something into the lab
| | 04:38 | and wait a few days
before you ever saw the results.
| | 04:41 | I mean, even before Polaroid film, that was
the way you must have worked back in the 1950s.
| | 04:46 | Douglas Kirkland: It's vastly different.
| | 04:49 | I mean just we could never have
imagined back in those years that we would be
| | 04:54 | here where we are sitting here and
with the wealth of possibilities that
| | 04:59 | we have with today's technology and you have
become a great leader in this. I must commend you.
| | 05:03 | Lynda Weinman: Well, thank you.
| | 05:04 | Douglas Kirkland: And people need you.
| | 05:05 | One of my assistants, Will, we said,
you should-- he had some questions and
| | 05:12 | uncertainties about Photoshop, we
suggested, you should get into lynda.com, he did.
| | 05:19 | A couple of days later, he came back
and he showed me some tricks on the
| | 05:22 | keyboard that I didn't know.
| | 05:23 | Lynda Weinman: And it's really an honor to be
in this position where we are creating training
| | 05:27 | and helping everybody stay
current but that really is a challenge.
| | 05:31 | I am sure it's a challenge to you to
stay current even with or without lynda.com.
| | 05:35 | So how do you guys do it and where do
you draw the line between when you adopt
| | 05:38 | new technology and when you stick with
what you know just to be productive and
| | 05:42 | keep up with the deadlines and things like that?
| | 05:44 | Douglas Kirkland: I must confess that I haven't
been as quick at learning Lightroom and Aperture
| | 05:50 | as I should have, because I am still
using Bridge and Photoshop because I know it
| | 05:58 | and I do have a schedule to keep and we
do a lot of work. It's very important for us.
| | 06:04 | We go all over the world shooting and
it was never as easy as it was this year
| | 06:09 | working with digital because you could
work in extremely low light, you could
| | 06:14 | have smaller, lighter lenses because
you have got higher ISOs possible, and
| | 06:21 | essentially, no noise in the latest cameras.
| | 06:24 | People forget the importance of
high ISOs and that's empowering.
| | 06:29 | It really is, so you are carrying less
equipment and it's doing more and that's
| | 06:33 | even before just shooting it and
then we did multiple saves every night.
| | 06:37 | So all of these things
contribute to the richness we have today.
| | 06:41 | Lynda Weinman: Now you have probably matured
with your approach to digital photography because
| | 06:47 | I remember when you first learned
Photoshop, you were in Photoshop a lot and
| | 06:51 | you were experimenting with a lot of filters
and your work was quite altered as a result.
| | 06:56 | So how do you describe the evolution
of your own interaction with digital
| | 07:02 | photography and how it's affected your work?
| | 07:04 | Douglas Kirkland: Okay, well, I
will answer that in the following way.
| | 07:07 | Part of my amazement in the beginning was what
I could do, how empowered I was by this machine.
| | 07:13 | How I could make the sky green, blue,
red, anything I wanted, and all sorts of
| | 07:18 | things like that and once you pass
that point, you just want to learn how to
| | 07:23 | refine images and make them
really the way they should be.
| | 07:28 | The extreme results are not what I want anymore.
| | 07:31 | I did a book about it a year,
approximately a year, a year-and-a-half after my
| | 07:36 | first introduction to Photoshop with you.
| | 07:39 | It was called Icons and a lot of
extreme filters in that and I took a
| | 07:44 | lot of the celebrity images I had and
made these sort of wild outlandish bright
| | 07:52 | colored images and it was cool.
| | 07:54 | Some of them held up but most didn't
and today, again, we have all matured
| | 08:01 | so much, we have this wealth
and isn't it exciting?
| | 08:05 | Lynda Weinman: It is and I really admire you
and I am sure you are the envy of a lot of
| | 08:11 | your photographer friends because you made
this transition much sooner than many others.
| | 08:15 | Douglas Kirkland: There is a
very funny thing about that.
| | 08:17 | I was one of the early group people just
because technology interests me and
| | 08:21 | you got me going on it.
| | 08:23 | But what is quite interesting to me
is that many people resisted it and to
| | 08:30 | such an extent, I heard of a guy not
too far from here, out in San Francisco,
| | 08:35 | who said, he was retiring and he said,
I am glad I am getting out of photography
| | 08:38 | just before I had to learn
all that Photoshop stuff.
| | 08:40 | Isn't that awful?
| | 08:41 | Lynda Weinman: It's a shame, because
I don't think he realizes how much fun
| | 08:45 | Lynda Weinman: and how liberating it is.
Douglas Kirkland: Oh, he lost. That's right.
| | 08:47 | Douglas Kirkland: And anyway, I once said--
I said actually in that first book I wrote,
| | 08:51 | Icons and I still feel it's true for me,
this is the back end of the camera
| | 08:57 | that I never had before.
| | 08:59 | This is the machine that really makes it work.
| | 09:02 | It allows me to carry it anywhere I want
and very, very wonderful. It's enriching.
| | 09:09 | Lynda Weinman: Well, do you think that the
early days before computers shaped anything that has
| | 09:15 | influenced what you do today with computers?
| | 09:17 | I mean sometimes when you learn things
in a very mechanical analog fashion,
| | 09:23 | you build foundations and principles
that people who just get into digital
| | 09:27 | photography without having
ever learned it the other way.
| | 09:31 | I mean can you talk a little bit about that?
| | 09:32 | Douglas Kirkland: I think you made a very
important point there because some people, they would
| | 09:37 | be younger people and we are all young
sometimes and there's great wealth and
| | 09:42 | energy from that and it can be very
beneficial period in one's life and a very
| | 09:47 | exciting period and I am all for it.
| | 09:49 | But I would say, I have had some people
come to work for me who had only lived
| | 09:54 | in the digital world and we would
talk about something like film for some
| | 09:59 | purpose or something pertaining to
traditional work or even some history of
| | 10:04 | photography, and I will realize that
they are staring in space and they have
| | 10:08 | no idea what I am speaking about.
| | 10:10 | I am glad I learned in the traditional
way and then got into digital because I
| | 10:15 | can see both avenues there and I think
there is-- you value the richness that
| | 10:21 | digital provides us with.
| | 10:22 | But at the same time, I will never
fight somebody if they say, oh, I want film.
| | 10:27 | I can shoot film. Yes, I can shoot film.
| | 10:29 | Lynda Weinman: Yeah, while film is still around.
| | 10:31 | Douglas Kirkland: Yeah, while
film is still around. Try Polaroid.
| | 10:33 | Lynda Weinman: I mean I think everybody
enters the workforce or their professional life at
| | 10:40 | whatever era of time.
| | 10:42 | Photographers in the 1800s had a whole
different set of parameters than we have
| | 10:47 | today and so the younger generation is
going to walk into this industry and
| | 10:51 | they are never going
to be able to go backwards.
| | 10:54 | Polaroid is gone. There is no really
turning back and if you think about
| | 10:58 | photographers entering the workforce
20 years from now, 30 years from now,
| | 11:01 | they won't have the ability to
even learn the old ways, so.
| | 11:05 | Douglas Kirkland: Most of them
won't be able to or they won't care to.
| | 11:09 | I think they will be much more limited.
| | 11:10 | I personally am a believer that there is a
great value in understanding this profession.
| | 11:15 | I mean I find in photo schools often,
one of the things they are missing most
| | 11:19 | often is that they don't learn any history.
| | 11:22 | I mean the 30s, the 20s and back to
the earlier part of the 20th century had
| | 11:28 | great richness of image making.
| | 11:32 | This can be done with digital work too.
| | 11:34 | I mean let's say you put a sepia on.
| | 11:37 | Well, some people, they don't
even know how to say the word sepia;
| | 11:40 | they call it sep-ia, things like that.
| | 11:43 | But anyway, yes, there is a great
history to look at, but this does not
| | 11:49 | negate the digital camera.
| | 11:50 | I think the digital camera can do--
you can create any of these effects.
| | 11:54 | That's tremendously exciting,
it's a great way to communicate.
| | 11:57 | Lynda Weinman: Well, I totally agree with you,
but I also think there are timeless principles
| | 12:01 | and sometimes in the enthusiasm over
getting into digital on the fact that
| | 12:06 | everything is so instant and automatic,
those timeless principles are no longer
| | 12:11 | honored, taught or even memorialized.
| | 12:14 | So what sorts of timeless principles
influence you to this day irregardless of
| | 12:20 | what technology or camera or
lens or whatever you are using?
| | 12:24 | Douglas Kirkland: Well, one thing is, in this
avenue of Polaroid and I see it frequently happen
| | 12:29 | with digital, is you have a subject.
| | 12:31 | Let's say I was
photographing you as you sit here today.
| | 12:34 | Some people take one picture and then
they spend three minutes looking at the picture,
| | 12:39 | as their subject fades because
it's ultimately the connection between
| | 12:44 | you and somebody else and
the camera is just an in between.
| | 12:47 | You can take glances maybe at it, but
you shouldn't be spending so much time
| | 12:52 | with that or some photographers have
that same problem with Polaroids because
| | 12:57 | ultimately, it's your subject, you,
and the communication between you and
| | 13:03 | that's what's recorded.
| | 13:06 | It's all that and no
machine will ever displace that.
| | 13:12 | Lynda Weinman: Right, so that sort
of the idea of being in the moment.
| | 13:15 | Douglas Kirkland: Being in the
moment and having your connection.
| | 13:18 | A lot of it is communication.
| | 13:20 | One of the things I often feel very
strongly about is you can have any camera or
| | 13:25 | any device you want, but if you cannot
connect with somebody, you are not likely
| | 13:29 | going to get a good picture of
an individual as a portrait, say.
| | 13:32 | Now you may get a good picture of
a bridge or something, but it's so
| | 13:36 | wonderful to be able to really
communicate and that's what so much of my
| | 13:40 | photography has been about.
| | 13:43 | It's how you are with people.
| | 13:45 | Like, as we sit here talking, we get a
buzz because we are in the same plane,
| | 13:50 | but if you don't have that, it's not happening.
| | 13:53 | Lynda Weinman: And I can imagine that the
equipment can get in the way if you are new at
| | 13:58 | this and you are really focused on, do I have
the setting right or am I using this properly.
| | 14:04 | You are forgetting about that connection,
you are forgetting about being in the moment.
| | 14:07 | Douglas Kirkland: As somebody doing this a long
time, what I have always tried to do is develop
| | 14:11 | the ability to have that handling
of the camera work automatically.
| | 14:16 | So it's in the background.
| | 14:17 | I don't have to look at it all the time.
| | 14:19 | I have certain checks in my head but I
have done this more than 50 years, let's say.
| | 14:26 | Through that time I have learned a
great deal and today of course, we have
| | 14:32 | great automatic meters, automatic focus, all
these things that we never would have imagined.
| | 14:37 | But still, you have got to get a great
image and whether it's the sun setting or
| | 14:44 | whether-- you have so many options.
| | 14:47 | I have often said, one of the
things I have said in the early days,
| | 14:51 | the importance and significance and power
of Photoshop, and I am generalizing,
| | 14:56 | let's say the computer and camera, is that
it gives you enough space to really screw
| | 15:00 | up if you have bad ideas.
| | 15:03 | I have taught some classes where people
were using Photoshop and boy, they were bad.
| | 15:08 | I mean they just didn't have it and they
showed their lack of aesthetic judgment.
| | 15:15 | Lynda Weinman: It's not a replacement for
having a point of view and a good aesthetic
| | 15:20 | vocabulary and filtering system.
| | 15:23 | I think to me, most of the greatest
artists that I meet are their own worst critics.
| | 15:28 | Would you say that that's
true of yourself as well?
| | 15:30 | Douglas Kirkland: Absolutely.
| | 15:31 | You know I would tell you
something about me just in a few words.
| | 15:35 | I am my own critic all the time.
| | 15:38 | At the end of each day of work, shooting,
I will say, okay what did I do right,
| | 15:45 | and what did I do wrong?
| | 15:46 | Sometimes I will do it the other way
around, but I try to learn from each day.
| | 15:50 | If I did something right, hey, good, cool.
| | 15:52 | I want to use this in the future.
| | 15:53 | I want to pick up lessons I have learned here.
| | 15:56 | What was the light like, what was the
day like, what was that -- how did it
| | 16:01 | get running so well, and I would do
the same thing if it didn't run well.
| | 16:06 | First, admit you have messed up or
you didn't do the best possible and then
| | 16:10 | second, find out how to prevent that
from happening in the future and that's
| | 16:13 | the only way you get better because life,
for me, is a learning process that never stops.
| | 16:19 | That's what's great about-- We are not
kids, either of us, but we have enjoyed
| | 16:24 | this forward motion with
the whole world of digital.
| | 16:27 | Lynda Weinman: It's a whole different world.
I am really glad that we have been able to spend
| | 16:32 | these days with you and get a little
window into what your world looks like and --
| | 16:36 | Douglas Kirkland: We have
tried to be as honest as we can.
| | 16:39 | I really want the people to know that
they have really lived with us and been
| | 16:45 | as honest as possible.
| | 16:47 | I really care passionately about
photography and this world that we have and the
| | 16:52 | possibilities that we have
in it. It's very exciting.
| | 16:53 | Lynda Weinman: Yes and it's so
wonderful feeling to share, I think.
| | 16:57 | In a lot of fields, people are very
protective of what they know and think
| | 17:02 | that they have trade secrets and if
they let anybody else know, they are going
| | 17:06 | to somehow lose their power or lose their
marketability and you don't seem to practice that.
| | 17:11 | Douglas Kirkland: That's very
short-sighted in my opinion.
| | 17:12 | When I was very young in photography,
in the first year or so, I made the
| | 17:17 | decision that I was -- I'd taken an unusual
picture and people didn't know how it was done
| | 17:22 | and they were asking
me how it was done.
| | 17:23 | I made a clear decision at that
point that I am going to tell all.
| | 17:27 | I thought I don't want to be a one-
trick act and I thought to myself, I will
| | 17:33 | give this away and I am going to keep working and
try and find something else to go to because--
| | 17:38 | Lynda Weinman: The next thing.
Douglas Kirkland: Yeah, that's what's exciting.
| | 17:40 | Lynda Weinman: Yeah, that's
what's keeps it interesting.
| | 17:41 | Douglas Kirkland: Yeah, exactly.
| | 17:42 | We have to do this, this is why we
should be doing it and no one should have a
| | 17:47 | corner in any market and you
can't live on what you did yesterday.
| | 17:49 | Lynda Weinman: Well, that's a great point.
| | 17:52 | Lynda Weinman: Well, Douglas, I want to thank you so
much for being with us and being part of lynda.com.
| | 17:56 | Douglas Kirkland: Thank you. My pleasure.
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