Bob Willoughby

Robert Hanley 'Bob' Willoughby ( June 30, 1927 in Los Angeles - † December 8, 2009 in Vence ) was an American photographer. Willoughby has documented over 150 Hollywood films through photographs of the stars and directors involved and through scenes from the set and the background. The Popular Photography Magazine called him "[...] the man who practically the photojournalistic movie still has invented for Hollywood movies"

life and work

Willoughby attended Alexander Hamilton High School in Los Angeles. For his twelfth birthday, he received an inexpensive Argus C3 camera. He acquired his first technical skills autodidactically from a photographer in the neighborhood. Willoughby, who had a babysitting job there, was allowed to use their darkroom. After graduating from high school, he studied cinematography at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles and design with Saul Bass at the Kann Institute of Art in West Hollywood. During his studies he had contacts with the photographer Paul Hesse (1896–1973), who worked as an advertising and glamor photographer for film companies from the 1920s to the 1940s , and for his studio partner Wallace Seawel (1916–2007). Wallace Seawel was a sought-after portrait photographer by cinema and stage stars, artists and politicians. In his spare time, Willoughby photographed jazz musicians and variety dancers.

An employee of the Globe Photo Agency accidentally saw his photos and brought a portfolio to Harper's Bazaar . He was then commissioned to photograph cultural events in Los Angeles for the magazine.

Hollywood

In 1953, Paramount Studios commissioned him to take publicity photos of Audrey Hepburn . Hepburn was an unknown actress at the time, who won an Oscar with her first Hollywood film A Heart and a Crown . From the first photo shoot with the starlet at the time, a friendship developed between the star and the photographer that lasted until Audrey Hepburn's death. Audrey Hepburn was Willoughby's favorite photo subject for years. Photos that have been taken since that time, glamor and advertising photos and those that show them on the set and in private surroundings, have found their way into galleries and museums as well as several illustrated books. They are shown at traveling exhibitions to this day.

Alfred Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren on the set of Marnie , Photo: Bob Willoughby

In 1954, he received a request from Warner Brothers to photograph Judy Garland on the set of A Star is Born . That was the first time that a studio had a photographer permanently on the set who was supposed to produce photos especially for a film that would then be sold to the press. With Judy Garland he got his first cover photo of Life , for Judy Garland it was the second. That was the beginning of a more than 20 year collaboration with all the major Hollywood studios .

A second focus of his photography were pictures of directors working with their stars, who have achieved a high level of awareness through frequent reproductions. These include photographs with John Cassavetes , George Cukor , Blake Edwards , Alfred Hitchcock , Clifford Odets , Roman Polanski , Sydney Pollack , Otto Preminger , Billy Wilder and Fred Zinnemann .

Technical innovations

Willoughby developed a number of photographic innovations that made his work with the camera easier. He designed a bracket to attach the still camera directly to the film camera so that stills could be captured from the same perspective as the film. To minimize camera noises on set, he financed the construction of a soundproof camera and used radio-controlled cameras.

In Europe

In 1972 he moved with his family to Kilbrittain Castle in Courtmacsherry Bay in southern Ireland, where he lived for the next 17 years. In Ireland, landscape photography became his new topic. He also studied old Irish poetry, which he translated into English. The book “Irish poetry. Voices From Ancient Ireland ”, which he illustrated with landscape photographs, is the result of this work. In the early 1990s he sold the castle to a nephew of Walt Disney and moved his main residence to Vence in the south of France, where he died in 2009. Willoughby was married and had four children.

Awards

In 2004, he received the Lucie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Still Photography for Motion Pictures in New York .

Collections (selection)

Willoughby's photos are among others. a. in the following museums: National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC; National Portrait Gallery in London; National Museum of Photography in Bradford, UK; Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris; Musée de la Photographie in Charleroi, Belgium; Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Beverly Hills, CA .; Museum of Modern Art , Film Department, New York City; Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York City; Tate Gallery in London; Musée de la Photographie Charles Nègre in Nice.

Exhibitions (selection)

Willoughby's photos have been featured in over 500 exhibitions in 53 countries.

• 2006: Bob Willoughby, Liz Talor . Ludwig Museum Koblenz
• 2010: Bob Willoughby's Hollywood . Cannes Film Festival , Patio Canal +
• 2012: Bob Willoughby: The Silver Age of Hollywood. Proud Chelsea Gallery, London
• 2018: Bob Willoughby exhibition: Audrey & Marilyn . TimeOut, Tokyo
• 2018: 'Shooting Stars'- an exhibition of iconic images of Hollywood's Golden Age by Bob Willoughby . ElliottHalls, Amsterdam
• 2019: Audrey . F11 Photo Museum, Hong Kong

Art trade

Photographs by Bob Willoughby reach prices of up to 4,000 to 5,000 euros at auctions.

literature

Illustrated books (selection)

• The Platinum Years . Text by Richard Schickel . New York: Random House 1974. ISBN 978-0-39449380-0
• Audrey Hepburn. Photographs 1953-1966. Cologne: Taschen 2014. ISBN 978-3-83655449-7
• Jazz in LA. With essays by Herb Geller , Bob Willoughby and Mike Zwerin . Translated by Caroline Mähl, edited and compiled by Ingo Wulff. Kiel: Nieswand 1990. ISBN 978-3-926048-41-7
• Jazz. Body and Soul . Foreword Dave Brubeck . Verl. Blume 2012. ISBN 978-84-9801702-1

Movie books

• The Graduate. Kiel: Nieswand 2002. ISBN 978-3-926048-27-1
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Kiel: Nieswand 1991.
• Rosemary's baby . Kiel: Nieswand 2002. ISBN 978-3-926048-30-1
• Only horses are given the coup de grace. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? . Film photo documents. German by Caroline Mähl. Kiel: Nieswand 1990. ISBN 3-926048-29-8

Translations

• Irish poetry. Voices From Ancient Ireland . London: Pan Macmillan 1981. ISBN 978-0-33026274-3

Web links

• Bob Willoughby in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Photo gallery
• Bob Willoughby Photography
• Bob Willoughby, short biography
• Stars'- an exhibition of iconic images of Hollywood's Golden Age by Bob Willoughby
• Peter Yeung: Bob Willoughbym Hollywood's First Behind the Scenes Photographer Independent, September 3, 2014
• Richard Williams: Bob Willoughby obituary obituary, The Guardian, Jan 18, 2010
• Chris Jenkins: Hollywood Icon: Audrey Hepburn and the Photography of Bob Willoughby arts & collections

Individual evidence

1. ↑ literal quote: ^{"The man who virtually invented the photojournalistic motion picture still for Hollywood films."}
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Star Black: Bob Willoughby, in: Popular Photography. November 1983. p. 100.
3. ↑ Judy Garland Takes for an Oscar Life Magazine, September 13, 1954, accessed July 25, 2019.
4. ↑ Bob Willoughby. The man who reinvented the movie still
5. ↑ Stephen Hoffmann Gallery. Bob Willoughby (1927-2009) Retrieved July 27, 2019
6. ↑ Jennifer Hogh: The Man Behind the Camera Dies at 81 The Examiner, December 21, 2009, accessed July 28, 2019
7. ↑ Bob Willoughby. Museum Collections
8. ↑ Audrey Hepburn - the photos by Bob Willoughby, Ludwig Museum exhibition, Koblenz, accessed on July 20, 2019
9. ↑ Technicolor unveils presence for 63rd edition of Cannes International Film festival accessed on July 24, 2019
10. ↑ Rob Anderson: New Bob Willoughby show celebrates his celebrity rich movie-set masterpieces. Accessed July 24, 2019
11. ↑ Bob Willoughby , artsy.net.Retrieved June 24, 2020