Lawrence Schiller, Tippi Hedren and Alfred Hitchcock, on the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles, California, 1962 Photo by Lawrence Schiller © Copyright Polaris Communications, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
It’s not every day you are get the chance to dig deep on what it was like to work with some of the biggest names in Hollywood from the “Golden Era”, from Marilyn to Bette to a Kennedy, but in a very special interview, notorious photographer Lawrence Schiller spills the beans on what it was really like to be a photographer at that time, what privacy meant to celebrities back then, and whose very famous sofa he slept on after a long night out.
Lawrence Schiller’s career started at the young age of just 25, when he documented Marilyn Monroe on the set of her final film, “Something’s Gotta Give”. Since then, Schiller has made it his life’s work to not only photograph the rich and famous from the 1950s and 60s, but to help shape them into the personalities we now know today.
What was it like to photograph some of the most famous and iconic people of our lifetime?
In the 1960s, when I did the majority of my photography, the whole area of communications was different from how we deal with it today. In those days, the general circulation of magazines was the form of communication to the world. Television news was only just emerging and television as a form of communication for personalities did not exist, so celebrities relied on the general circulation of magazines throughout the world, like Der Spiegel, Stern, Life Magazine, even women’s magazines in the US.
What’s the difference between celebrities now and then?
Celebrities were much less jaded. In fact, they weren’t even jaded at all. They were still one-on-one as people. I photographed Jack Lemmon for a period of time, and one day we went out for dinner and all had some wine. I wasn’t in any shape to drive the car, so he said “Well, why don’t you just sleep on my couch and tomorrow we can go to the horse races!”. That wouldn’t exist today. The minute they [current celebrities] walk out of the house, there will be 10,000 paparazzi chasing them.
Back then, you could show up at Marilyn Monroe’s door unannounced if she knew who you were. They [celebrities] had much more a private life. I don’t think there is any personality that I photographed in that time, that you couldn’t relate to in some way.
You mentioned that magazines help shape the celebrities we now know, do you feel that you helped shape those personalities in some way?
Well, not only me but I would say that any photographer and journalist of that day played a part in that. The 1950s and 1960s were the pinnacle of portraiture and photojournalism. Richard Avedon, Irving Penn – they had incredible relationships within the studio, and then photojournalists like myself were somewhat parachuted inside these people’s lives and then disappeared, but those relationships still existed. The friendships remained for years after.
When I was photographing a lot of movies, I used to go out to bars with Paul Newman and George Kennedy at the end of a day’s work. Was there a camera over my shoulder? Yes. Did I take pictures? No. You knew what was private and what was not. Now there is no privacy.
So its not that the methods of communication have changed but actually our attitude to privacy has changed surrounding photography?
Right, because as television came in, it became more competitive. Especially when shows like Entertainment Tonight in the US started to appear, it became a feeding frenzy! For me, I would spend so much time with these people, these celebrities, that I just wouldn’t even think about taking their picture because you were building a relationship that would pay off.
Marilyn Monroe. Photo by Lawrence Schiller © Copyright Polaris Communications, Inc., All Rights Reserved
Who was your favourite person to photograph?
That’s kind of like saying which one of my five children are my favourite!
Ok, what about most natural in front of your camera?
Well, the most honest was Bette Davis. The most mysterious was Buster Keaton. Less was more with him, he said very little. It was all written over the lines of his face, he didn’t have to say word. But Bette Davis was very honest. She sat on the steps of her house after I photographed her and also helped her move in. She told me that I wouldn’t have lived my life until I’d been married a couple of times. Just chit chat! Marilyn Monroe was the easily exploited, because she wanted to be exploited, while Barbra Streisand was the most controlling. Clint Eastwood just wanted to be my buddy!
Lawrence Schiller at galerie hiltawsky, Berlin April 26th – June 7th 2014