Bruce Weber (photographer)
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Bruce Weber (born March 29, 1946) is an American photographer and occasional filmmaker. He is most widely known for his ad campaigns for Calvin Klein, Abercrombie & Fitch and Ralph Lauren.
Weber's fashion photography first appeared in the late 1970s in GQ magazine, where he had frequent cover photos. Soon known as a pioneer of modern male fashion and art photography, he came to the attention of the general public in the late 1980s and early 1990s with his advertising images for Calvin Klein. His straightforward black and white shots, featuring an unclothed heterosexual couple on a swing facing each other, two clothed men in bed, and model Marcus Schenkenberg barely holding jeans in front of himself in a shower, catapulted him into the national spotlight. His photo for Calvin Klein of Olympic athlete Tom Hintnaus in white briefs is a famous iconic image. He photographed the winter 2006 Ralph Lauren Collection.
After doing photo shoots for and of famous individuals (many of whom were featured in Andy Warhol's Interview magazine), Bruce entered the realm of filmmaking, making short films of teenage boxers (Broken Noses), jazz trumpeter Chet Baker (Let's Get Lost), his beloved pet dogs, and later, a longer film entitled Chop Suey Club. This documentary film, as the title suggests, was about a mix of subjects which encompassed many items "on his radar". Filmed in black and white, his gentle voiceover introduced us to an eclectic mix of jazz singers, explorers, and a male model he was currently shooting, a young man (married and a teacher today) named Peter.
Weber's photographs are occasionally in color, however most are in black and white or toned shades. They are gathered in limited edition print books, including but not limited to A House is Not a Home and Bear Pond, an early work which featured, among other models, Eric Nies from MTV's The Real World series.
Bruce Weber, though not the first to do so—the ancient Greeks, George Platt Lynes and many others—brought the image of chiseled male beauty more into the public spotlight. Among others, he is known for his nude photographs of the Brewer twins and the Carlson twins. He has long been the photographer for Abercrombie, even when it was in its catalog days. Weber appears to be a favorite of Sam Shahid, Abercrombie's advertising representative, who used to work at Calvin Klein with Weber.
Weber is credited for launching the modeling career of Isabella Rossellini.
Music video work
In 1988, Weber was approached by British pop duo Pet Shop Boys, who were in New York City to work with Liza Minnelli for her album Results. The Pet Shop Boys wanted Weber to do a video for their forthcoming single, "Domino Dancing", from their album Introspective. Weber was interested, but too busy with his current film, a documentary about Chet Baker, to accept.
Two years would pass before another opportunity for such a collaboration would present itself. By 1990, Pet Shop Boys had a new album, Behaviour, and were releasing "Being Boring" as a single. Weber took the project and directed a video, which would be both acclaimed and controversial. Weber's idea was to film a wild party with a very diverse group of people. Filmed in one day by two film crews in a house on Long Island, it was the most expensive Pet Shop Boys video at the time, costing roughly $225,000. Though there was no sexual content, a brief glimpse of male buttocks at the beginning was enough to prevent the video from being played on MTV in the USA.
Weber also directed Chris Isaak's music video "Blue Spanish Sky".
However, the Pet Shop Boys enjoyed the video immensely, and worked with Weber again in 1996, this time for a video for "Se a vida é", a song from their Latin-influenced album Bilingual. This project was shot at Wet 'n' Wild, a water park near Orlando, Florida.
Another six years later, in 2002, Weber again directed a Pet Shop Boys video, for the song "I Get Along" from the album Release. Weber's concept was to film one of his photo shoots on location at his own Little Bear studio in New York City. The video has a documentary feel, showing the models, as well as the Pet Shop Boys themselves, eating lunch and getting ready before the shoot. The DVD version of the video includes a short film afterward featuring the song "E-mail", which was also Weber's idea.