Bruce Weber Doesn’t Like Clothes

Claire Koron Elat: Your current exhibition “Early Men” at Galerie Buchholz in Cologne presents photographs from your foundational period in the late 1970s and early 80s. These works are lesser-known. Why did you choose to revisit them now and showcase them specifically in a gallery context?

Bruce Weber: Truthfully, I hadn’t thought to re-exhibit them at this moment. The idea started with a good friend of mine, the cinematographer Jeff Preiss, who I worked with on two films years ago: Broken Noses (1987), and Let’s Get Lost (1988). Jeff is friendly with Jacob King and Heji Shin. They connected Nathaniel Kilcer, who works in my archives, with Christopher Müller and Daniel Buchholz, and together they looked through lots of older works and proposed we start there.

I got particularly excited when we started reviewing the sittings I had done at George Cukor’s home in Los Angeles back in the late 70’s when I was first starting out. When I heard that Christopher and Daniel responded to that work as well and the idea behind it, I knew we were on the same page.

CKE: The exhibition’s press release also says that Heji Shin and Jacob King had a conversation in which Shin criticized contemporary fashion photography, and said she finds boring. What do you think about fashion photography today? And how would you compare it to fashion photography in the 80s, 90s, and 00s?

BW: It’s a little hard to answer this, because for me, photography was never just about fashion—and I find fashion in the most unexpected places. Sometimes I’ll see a photograph of an important ambassador on a state visit, and I think about the clothes they’re wearing. I’ve always felt photography was about everything that our eyes see, or at least what we want to see. I understand Heji’s point, though. Fashion photography today is so different. Back when I started, we were using film. I had a beautiful spectral light meter that was typically used in-cinema. It was my trusted companion, as much as my camera. Now, with digital, it’s different–some of that trial and error is taken out of the equation. But I’m still excited any time I pick up a camera.

I think the biggest difference when I was starting out was the amazing support system backing me up: editors, art directors, stylists and publishers all pushing me to do my best. Young photographers today simply don’t have access to networks like that, or the same time to develop those relationships. But I try not to be judgmental about it. I know that photographers are having a good time as always and that people are giving them chances.