One of the Most Influential Commercial Image Makers of the Late 20th Century
American photographer and filmmaker Bruce Weber is one of the most influential commercial image makers of the late 20th century. His career spanning five decades is among the most celebrated and prestigious, challenging and redefining the traditional perceptions of beauty, masculinity and femininity. Born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania in 1946, Weber’s interest in the camera came early; he would spend Sunday afternoons making 8mm film and art projects in his family home at a very young age. After a few years studying art at the Denison College in Ohio, he moved to New York to study film and photography at New York University.
Weber in New York
While in New York, he became friends with another iconic name in photography, Diane Arbus, who introduced Weber to Lisette Model. Model accepted Weber among her students at the New School for Social Research and her mentorship was one of the key elements in shaping Weber’s photographic vision. Around the same time, Bruce Weber built his first darkroom and began taking headshot portraits of actors and actresses starting out in the city. He would talk to each person about what they wished the portrait to reflect, and would communicate these feelings through his photography and art direction. It is then that Bruce Weber began expressing his love of storytelling through his images.
GQ Magazine
While test shooting with Francesca Scavullo in the late 1960s, Bruce Weber met Nan Bush who was instrumental in launching his career in the fashion world. In 1974, GQ hired him to do a day shoot and subsequently a feature story where he worked closely with, then Art Director, Donald Sterzin. The two went on to produce numerous classic issues and stories together for years to come. Weber’s work for GQ was a turning point in his career. At the time, there were very few men’s products, and men’s fashion was very conventional. Grace Coddington, Weber’s long time collaborator said that,
“for decades in fashion magazines, men were accessories. They were props.”
Changing the Role of Men in Fashion
His early work for GQ helped viewers look at the role of men in fashion as idealized and desired. His images conveyed a certain lifestyle, a distinct American-ness. He often incorporated women, children and animals into his photographs; establishing what would become his signature characteristic throughout his images; love of people, clothes, life and journeying. Such narrative approach to fashion photography was also desired by magazines, and lead to a career-encompassing relationship with the likes of Vogue.
Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein
Bruce Weber’s newly forming signature approach to photographic storytelling soon captured the interest of fashion houses seeking to establish and form their brand identities. In 1976, Weber became the primary photographer for Ralph Lauren and the collaboration would continue for several decades. He took active an role in every aspect of the campaign imagery from casting to props, styling and location selection. Around the same time, Bruce Weber photographed the Calvin Klein advertising campaigns, with model Lisa Taylor lying down on the red earth in Santa Fe, and the resulting images became synonymous with the brand’s defining characteristics; sensuality and freedom. The collaboration between Calvin Klein and Bruce Weber extended through the mid 90s where the campaign imagery remains as some of the most influential of the late 20th century commercial fashion photography, including the 1982 Calvin Klein underwear campaign with Brazilian pole vaulter Tom Hintnaus.
Point of Conception: Ric Arango
One of the series that best reflect the sensual, heroic, free imagery of Bruce Weber is his Point Conception series with Ric Arango which he shot in 1989. Ric was a young athlete Weber had met the same year, and who he cast, along side Nathalie Gabrielli, for the iconic Obsession fragrance campaign for Calvin Klein. The black and white series depicts a nude Ric Arango suspended in the air in different athletic positions, with nothing but the clear sky in the background. His physique photography, such as this series, gave shape to the modern male photography. Victoria and Albert Museum would describe it as
“sexy yet innocent, sculptural but relaxed, an image of clean-cut, all American athleticism.”
Physical Perfection
Although Weber’s images were at times considered to be controversial, they rarely displayed blatant nudity. The defined physical features of Ric Arango, for example, are shown in aesthetic athletic poses that almost appear to be sculptures. The deep blacks and whites Weber uses further highlight the muscular features of the model’s body, referencing the likes of Horst P. Horst and George Hoyningen-Huene. Through the model’s body language and poses, and through a play of light and shadow, Weber creates an exuberant, uplifting sense in the series. There is a sense of freedom and beauty in the photographs as well. The images are framed from a low angle as Arango jumps with the sky as a background. Weber captures a form of physical perfection and the varieties of male beauty, celebrating the male form. His signature synthesis of classicism, naturalism and eroticism all come together in Point Conception.
A Symbiotic Relationship with Fashion and Commerce
For decades, the photography of Bruce Weber ranging from fashion to portraiture, landscape to still-life and personal subjects have been legendary. His sensuous and spontaneous aesthetic has created a symbiotic relationship with fashion and commerce through groundbreaking advertising campaigns and editorials. During the course of his career, more than 15 books of Weber’s work have been published. His photographs are in the permanent collections of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. Weber has exhibited at venues including the 1987 Whitney Biennial in New York City, Musee de l’Elysee in Lausanne, Switzerland, Palazzo Fortuny in Venice, the Florence Biennale, the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the Russell Senate Building in Washington, DC among others.