From the course: Douglas Kirkland on Photography: A Conversation with Gerd Ludwig

Unlock this course with a free trial

Join today to access over 22,400 courses taught by industry experts.

Meet Douglas Kirkland

Meet Douglas Kirkland

I grew up in a small town in Canada. Only 7000 people. The first picture I ever took was taken with a box camera, a Brownie box camera, and I remember pushing it into my chest, 10 years of age at the time, and pushing that device down and it went clunk. I got the buzz right then and it's never stopped since. Speed Graphic was the camera of the time and if you had this in your hand as a young man, I have to tell you, you really felt you were hot. Turn this way, that way. I mean, that was a charge of like nothing else. I got a call from Look magazine. I was basically hired to shoot fashion and I was the new generation. I was in my mid 20s. The year was 1960. And then my boss in New York called me and he said, "We'd like you to go to Las Vegas with our movie editor because Elizabeth Taylor, who hasn't been photographed or had a story done on her in about 2 or 3 years now, has said she'll give us an interview." I sat quietly in the back of the room as the journalists interviewed her and I…

Contents