At Stone Bell House in Prague, one of the last great American photographers of the second half of the 20th century, Bruce Weber (78), is exhibiting his work. He photographed and filmed commercials for global fashion brands, created photo editorials for lifestyle magazines, and his documentary about jazz trumpeter Chet Baker was nominated for an Oscar. Alongside movie stars, the most famous musicians, businessmen, and politicians, hundreds of athletes also stepped in front of his camera. Before the Olympic Games in Los Angeles 1984, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, and London 2012, he took extensive series of portraits of American Olympians for magazines such as Interview, Vogue, and Vanity Fair.
TEXT: MAREK GREGOR
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During our September meeting at the Four Seasons Hotel, just before the opening of the Prague exhibition, he told me about his beginnings. Thanks to his sister, who worked for United Artists Records in New York in the early 1970s, he had the chance to photograph Tom Waits, Frank Zappa, David Bowie, and Ike and Tina Turner. Soon came his first magazine assignments, and in 1975 he photographed the founder of the Ralph Lauren brand for Harper’s Bazaar. He often photographed Kate Moss, but he greatly respected architect and painter Zaha Hadid. He is a close friend of Pedro Almodóvar, and one of his greatest experiences was photographing Nelson Mandela, which he did thanks to his friendship with Naomi Campbell. He repeatedly returned to sports photography, though he said the most challenging was shooting team sports – water polo and ice hockey.
ANTIQUE BEAUTY OF THE BODY
When you look at Bruce Weber's photographs, you'll realize it was only a matter of time before he turned to portrait photography of athletes. An almost antique physicality has always marked his images for fashion brands and lifestyle magazines, or if you will, a style reminiscent of Leni Riefenstahl. He claims he only heard about her years later when he was already well-known: "The first person who told me about her was Helmut Newton. Later, when I read her autobiography, I concluded that she probably wasn’t the nicest woman in the world. But yes, I do like her photographs and I think she was a great photographer, even though that’s not everything."
He first started photographing American Olympians before the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. The New York-based Interview magazine devoted a special edition to his project, titled United States Olympic Special, dated January/February 1984. Andy Warhol, the founder, and co-owner of the magazine, which was first published in 1969, wrote in the editorial with charm and a certain hedonistic snobbery: "When you're about to write about something as unique as the Olympic Games, you try to seize the opportunity and express something exceptional. And so, because various mottos, creeds, and excerpts always sound better when spoken in Latin, and because ancient Rome isn't so far from Mount Olympus, I’ll use a translation of my version, based on the greeting Roman gladiators would give to the emperor, and as one of the millions of future television viewers in 1984, and as a huge admirer of the strength, skill, and effort of all the competitors in Los Angeles, I say: Nos spectatores vos salutamus." Which can be translated as: We, the spectators, greet you.
FROM COLORADO SPRINGS THROUGH L.A. TO N.Y. AND BACK
The main location for Bruce Weber’s first and largest sports photo shoot was Colorado Springs. From today’s perspective, what took place there was almost unimaginable. Since 1978, in the years when the Olympic Games were not held, the U.S. Olympic Committee initiated the National Sports Festival, later renamed the U.S. Olympic Festival. It was an obvious response to the growing success of athletes from Eastern Bloc countries, where not only the USSR and the GDR, but also Hungary, Romania, and Cuba began to dominate some sports at the largest sporting event. The fifth edition of the American festival, held a year before the Los Angeles Olympic Games, was the biggest opportunity to take stock of the future U.S. Olympic team.
In June 1983, Bruce Weber and his large team settled on a plain outside Colorado Springs, with a view of the nearby Pike’s Peak, and began photographing a unique series. Throughout the shoot, nearly 250 American Olympic hopefuls, including some defending Olympic medalists from the 1976 Games (the 1980 Moscow Olympics were boycotted by the U.S. and other Western countries), as well as world champions, paraded in front of his Pentax 6×7 camera. This is how the series came about, followed by star-studded trips to visit athletes across Southern California, Texas, and occasional trips back to New York, where he was based at the time.
You can read the full article in Sport in Art magazine #6 - Box.
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