Enlarge image
Photographer Kirkland (1934-2022): "I work with celebrities, but I'm not in awe of them"
Photo:
ZUMA Press / picture-alliance
Photographer Douglas Kirkland, who aimed his camera at many of Hollywood's biggest stars, is dead. The Hollywood Reporter reports this with reference to his family.
He died of natural causes at home in Los Angeles.
Kirkland lived to be 88 years old.
Iconic Images agency confirmed his passing.
Kirkland's photos of personalities such as Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Mick Jagger, Catherine Deneuve, Kim Basinger and Angelina Jolie have been printed in publications around the world.
Several examples can be seen on the Instagram account run by his widow Françoise.
A photograph of Charlie Chaplin taken in 1966 is on display at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
But what is probably the most famous shot Douglas Kirkland left behind was of Marilyn Monroe in November 1961: It was “very exciting” for him, he told SPIEGEL in a 2002 interview: “It was her wish.
She said: I know what we need, a silk sheet, a bed and nothing else."
Kirkland, who was born in Toronto in 1934, had been a photographer for a number of years and came to Monroe on behalf of the renowned magazine Look.
But he saw himself at the beginning of his career.
His breakthrough came earlier in 1961 when he did a session with Elizabeth Taylor on Look.
"I work with celebrities, but I'm not in awe of them."
Douglas Kirkland
A specialty of Douglas Kirkland was set photography.
He photographed the footage for a large number of famous films, including Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Saturday Night Fever (1977), Rain Man (1988), Titanic (1997) and The Great Gatsby (2013).
These commissions contributed to his nickname "Hollywood's Favorite Photographer."
Kirkland was described as a charming man with a quick smile and an infectious laugh.
The proximity of famous people did not make him nervous.
"I work with celebrities, but I'm not in awe of them," he told Photo Insider magazine in 1998. "The individuals are less important to me than the creative possibilities.
I find creating images exciting.«
Douglas Kirkland spoke without illusions about the changes in the film business.
40 years after shooting with her, he no longer believed that a new Marilyn was possible: »The once comparatively homogeneous film business has become a collection of microorganisms, of sectors.
That makes it difficult to become an over-star for everyone," he told SPIEGEL.
Feb