Photojournalist and portraitist Douglas Kirkland, whose subjects include Marilyn Monroe wrapped in a silk sheet and Coco Chanel working in her Parisian atelier, on October 2 in the Hollywood Hills near Los Angeles. died at his home in he was 88 years old.
His wife and manager, Françoise (Kemmel Coulter) Kirkland, confirmed the death but did not specify the cause.
For over 60 years, Mr. Kirkland has been a leading celebrity photographer, first for Look and Life magazines and then as a freelancer for various magazines, Hollywood studios and advertising agencies. He was polite, enthusiastic, and not an annoying paparazzi. Mr. Kirkland was welcomed into the star’s homes, hotel rooms, and movie sets.
Tall and dashing, Mr. Kirkland “had this magical quality,” said Karen Malarkey, who worked with Mr. Kirkland as a director of photography for New York and Newsweek magazines. “He had this way of making people feel comfortable – he was very enthusiastic.” As I was taking pictures, I remember hearing him say: Kiss them! they are your boyfriends!
In 1961, a year after joining Look, Mr. Kirkland had two dramatic encounters. First, he accompanied reporter Jack Hamilton to Las Vegas for an interview with Elizabeth Taylor, one of the biggest stars in the world at the time. When the three met, she said Ms. Taylor would speak, but she wouldn’t sit and take pictures.
After the interview, Kirkland recalled to the website vintage news daily In 2021, he tried to convince her to pose. He took her hand and said, Can you imagine what it would mean to me if I could take your picture? “
I didn’t let go of her hand. She was wearing her jungle gardenia perfume, which she could smell later,” he continued. “She thought for a moment and she said, ‘Come back tomorrow at 8pm,'” she said.
Results — Photo by Taylor in a yellow jacket Wearing stunning diamond earrings — appeared on the cover of the August 15, 1961 issue of Look.
Later that year, Look sent Mr. Kirkland to Los Angeles to photograph Mr. Monroe. They met at her house, where she told him what she wanted for her shoot: white silk sheets, Frank Sinatra records, and Dom Pérignon champagne.
When they met in the studio four days later, she took off her robe, got into bed, wrapped herself in sheets, and posed for Mr. Kirkland, who sat on the balcony above her for part of the shoot. rice field. She seemed to be commanding herself with what seemed like joyShe hugged a pillow, covered everything but her face with a sheet, and turned her back to the camera.
“Technically everything was right,” Kirkland said in a 2012 interview with “CBS This Morning.”
He recalled filming for the 2020 documentary That Click: The Legendary Photography of Douglas Kirkland, directed by Luca Severi. It was a pillow. But I chose to keep taking pictures. Because Douglas Kirkland actually was.
Look used only one photo of Monroe in the magazine, but Mr. Kirkland collected many of them in his 2012 book An Evening with Marilyn/1961. His other photography books include ‘Light Years: 3 Decades Photography Among the Stars’ (1989), ‘Icons’ (1993) and ‘Legends’ (1999).
As a look and life and on-set photographer, Kirkland has worked on “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Fiddler on the Year,” and more. , photographed during the production of over 100 films. Roof’, ‘Sophie’s Choice’, ‘Rain Man’, and several Baz Luhrmann films beginning with ‘Moulin Rouge! Mr. Luhrmann said in “That Click” that Mr. Kirkland’s photograph “captures the romance of the movie.”
His career began at a time when his subjects were more accessible to journalists and continued into an era when stars and their handlers wielded greater power over the media. The idea was to make it clear,” he told the New York Times in 1990.
Douglas Morley Kirkland was born on August 16, 1934 in Toronto and raised in Fort Erie, Ontario from the age of three. His father, Morley, owned a shop that made bespoke men’s clothing, and his mother, Evelyn (Reed) Kirkland, kept books in the shop.
He took his first pictures with a Brownie camera at a young age. Here’s a picture of a family standing on the porch of their home on Christmas Day. By age 14, he was photographing weddings. After high school, he studied at the New York Institute of Photography and returned to Canada, where he worked for two local newspapers before moving to Richmond, Virginia, where he worked as a commercial photographer.
While there, he wrote three letters to influential fashion photographer Irving Penn, seeking work.In 1957, Mr. Penn hired him as his assistant.
“I was getting paid $50 a week. Even when I was in New York, it wasn’t that simple.” He said in an interview with the American Media Photographers Association “But I stayed with the pen and learned quickly.”
Joined Look in 1960. He remained there until the magazine closed in 1971, and was hired by Life until the weekly ceased the following year. I worked for a magazine in
In 2011, he received the Director’s Guild of America President’s Award for his photographic work on film sets. The following year, I received a request from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, create a series of official portraits It was nominated for four Academy Awards for George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, and Glenn Close.
One of them, Michelle Williams, was nominated for playing Ms. Monroe in “A Week With Marilyn.” In her documentary That Click, she said it was a moving experience to be photographed by the same man who photographed Ms. Monroe half a century ago.
“I could never imagine being in a situation like this,” she said.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Kirkland has survived a marriage to Marian Perry that ended in divorce with son Mark and daughters Karen Kirkland and Lisa Kirkland Gadway. five grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
In August 1962, Mr. Kirkland spent three weeks in Paris with Coco Chanel for the look. At first she was wary of him and only allowed him to photograph the costumes she designed, which she did not. and let him watch her at work. She always wore a hat and was usually surrounded by staff. On our last day there, she suggested we drive to the Palace of Versailles. He took the last picture of her walking alone in the palace gardens.
“It was chilly and it started to rain even though it was August, so I gave him a raincoat.” Kirkland told The Guardian in 2015“When she threw it over her shoulder, it looked like a fashionable cloak. She said she loved it.”