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In 1962, Douglas Kirkland took some of the most intimate pictures of Coco Chanel. Taken under her wing, he was given a glimpse into her life on Rue Cambon and beyond. The photographer shares his fond memories of "Mademoiselle".
“This is a story about who she was, who I was, and how she affected my life,” says the renowned photographer Douglas Kirkland of the three weeks in 1962 he spent with Coco Chanel in Paris. “And she did affect Douglas Kirkland very much.”
Kirkland was a 27-year-old photographer for Look, a large format picture magazine, when he was assigned to photograph Chanel, whose clothes had just started to be worn by Jackie Kennedy, America’s First Lady at the time. Previously, he had worked under Irving Penn and his iconic photographs of Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor were taken just a year before he met Coco, or Mademoiselle as he refers to her.
“I learned very quickly to say Mademoiselle,” he says. “She didn’t want to be called Madame because she had success alone, without a man, and that’s what she would say. It was a sign of knowing her and respecting her.”
To Kirkland’s surprise, he came to know her well. He was given the run of the Chanel atelier on Rue Cambon, had access to her private apartment, and followed her in her daily life. Chanel took him under her wing, teaching him history, French, and how to sit at a table properly. “She made it her job to try and help Douglas Kirkland grow up. I never understood why she was being so nice to me,” he says. “Karl Lagerfeld said she was flirting with me.”
It was Lagerfeld who also commented that Kirkland’s pictures show Chanel in a more intimate light than any other photographs that exist of her. Throughout the series, which were taken reportage-style with no posing or lighting, Chanel can be seen smiling, laughing and concentrating on her work. Kirkland explains: “I wanted to be a fly on the wall and to take it all in because I knew what an opportunity it was.”
Now aged 75, Kirkland is still working, often at his combined home and studio in the Hollywood Hills. Celebrity portraiture remains his signature (Angelina Jolie and Renée Zellweger are some more recent subjects), as is photographing the sets of movies (his book, “James Cameron’s Titanic”, was the first picture book to top the New York Times best seller list).
This year Kirkland celebrated his 43rd wedding anniversary to his Parisian wife and agent, Françoise, who he credits as being key to his photography operation. Indeed, it was Françoise who recognized the value of the pictures of Chanel. In 2008, he published a book, “Coco Chanel: Three Weeks/1962”, which was followed in 2009 by another, “Mademoiselle: Coco Chanel/Summer 62”, which he worked on with Karl Lagerfeld.
This month, the photographs from Kirkland’s three weeks spent with Chanel are on view at Galerie Basia Embiricos in Paris at a selling exhibition. Kirkland and his wife flew from Los Angeles for the show’s opening. Spotting a Chanel store across the Place Vendôme, Kirkland comments: “Today you see Chanel everywhere and that’s what Mademoiselle created. It was an exceptional time in my life. I’m still moved by it, truthfully.”
Definition of luxury?
To be able to make my own choices. It isn’t necessarily luxury in terms of high living. It’s freedom. Luxury is also being able to buy a Cartier tank watch for the woman you love and have her still wear 45 years later. It is inscribed with, “Love through infinity, Douglas”.
A person?
My wife, Françoise. I met her when I was working on a movie in Paris called How to Steal a Million Dollars. Françoise was studying at the Sorbonne and her mother was doing publicity for the movie. We celebrated our 43rd wedding anniversary this month.
An object?
It’s not a yacht or an expensive Ferrari. I don’t need those acquisitions. Luxury is not objects; it’s a state of mind, of peace, of control. I think that’s more important than any object. We become encumbered by objects.
A place?
Italy, probably. The Italian Riviera, in particular, is beautiful.
A moment?
About a year ago we did a show with Italian Vanity Fair during fashion week in Milan. It was a huge show at the Triennale. The editors told me they were either going to be applauded or fired. There was a dinner at the museum for 300 people, where they flew people in from around the world, and then after dinner they opened the door to a party of 1000 more people. Now that’s luxury.
In conversation at the LuxuryCulture office overlooking the Place Vendôme in Paris, the legendary photographer Douglas Kirkland talks about his love for making pictures and his fond memories of “Mademoiselle” Coco Chanel.
How did you come to photograph Chanel?
I arrived here in 1962 as a junior photographer at Look magazine, a big picture magazine in America. I came with a fashion editor from the magazine to do a story on Chanel. The magazine had been undecided whether or not this story should be done because the big editor didn’t want to do it. He didn’t like fashion but it was a general picture magazine and the fashion editor forced it because First Lady Jackie Kennedy was wearing Chanel in the White House and this made it news.
What was your relationship with her like?
After about one week and a half the fashion editor left because it was her vacation.
I was left alone in a sea of elegance and was given the freedom of the place to walk around. It’s funny because I learned later that most of the models spoke English but just not with me. One morning I came face to face with Mademoiselle and she said, “Salut”. I didn’t know what that meant. Then she looked at me a little longer and she said in impeccable English, “I just said hello to you”. From that day on it went from night to day. She showed me things, told me to study French, told me how to sit at a table and use a knife and fork correctly. It was a great experience.
What did you want to achieve with these photos?
I wanted to be seen as little as possible and be out of the way. If I saw something interesting I would move in very slowly and snap and she wouldn’t flinch. I knew the great photography of Eugene Smith and Henri Cartier-Bresson; I knew the look and feel and had practiced it since my photo school days. When she made herself available to me, what I did was only shoot black and white and only use natural light. This was at a time when films were not as sensitive as they are today, so I was pushing the boundaries. And that’s where the fruit of these images came from.
The photos were taken over 3 weeks. Why did it end?
She invited me to join her on holiday in Switzerland. The truth is I was overjoyed but I wasn’t independent; I was a staff photographer. I wrote a joyful message to my editors in New York to tell them that I could go to Switzerland to get an even bigger and better story. When I returned to the office on Monday there was a two-word message from my editor that read simply, “Come home”. And that was the end of my project.
How did you feel in her presence?
I felt so inadequate by comparison. I showed a confidence and appeared to be in control even though inside I was very much a little boy. She became such a giant, so powerful.
What is your memory of her character?
She didn’t stop, she had lots to talk about, she was very opinionated, but she did it with a sparkle most of the time. I saw her on a few occasions get very firm, not with me but with others. I think if you worked for her you might love her but at times she was going to kill you.
The pictures seem similar in spirit to those taken of Picasso by David Douglas Duncan. Was he an influence of yours?
I know him very well; he was one of the people I studied. He is 10 years older than I and has always been one of my heroes. He certainly had a closer connection with Picasso than anybody else; he did such great pictures of him. I remember him back when I was 14, and being exposed to photography for the first time. He did a book called This is War, which was a brilliant book from the Korean War. That was the first time I became aware of him. He had a monumental affect on photography in America because he was the first to bring Japanese cameras to the United States. Everyone else was using Leica and he introduced us to Nikon.
Picasso Paints a Portrait by David Douglas Duncan
Buy online: http://www.amazon.com/Picasso-Paints-Portrait-Douglas-Duncan/dp/0788190091/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265983407&sr=8-4
Why did the pictures only come to light last year?
I have had these black and white negatives since 1962 but it took this long for people to realize the value of them, the essence of what was there. In 1989, I did a book called Light Years, which had three or four pictures of Mademoiselle, but people passed those pages quickly and looked at Marilyn and Dietrich. What happened was that Kodak called me and I dug the pictures out. My wife Françoise saw them and hadn’t previously realized the extent of the coverage I had. She was moved. We talked to a publisher and worked out it was the 150th anniversary of Chanel’s birth, so it all came together. What makes me pleased is that these pictures, which were in the dark and no one seemed to care about, have been realized and discovered. That makes me very passionate.
The last photo you took of her was at Château de Versailles. Tell us about that day.
She wanted to take me to Versailles to show it to me. So I went to her apartment not at the Hôtel Ritz but on the other side of Rue Cambon to have lunch with her, just the two of us. She showed me how to cut a fish, one of the many things that Douglas had not previously been exposed to. Then we went out to Versailles, which she wanted to tell me all about, which was again her bringing some culture to Douglas.
And what about the picture taken at Versailles?
As we were going round Versailles, it started to rain so I gave her my black trench coat. She went walking, this small figure. I saw her at a distance and thought if I could only remember this image of her. I hadn’t previously stolen any pictures, she was very aware of everything I did. I took one click and that was the last picture I ever took of Mademoiselle.
Your photos of Marilyn Monroe are arguably even more iconic than those of Chanel. How do they differ?
In the case of being with Marilyn, my job was to make the pictures happen. Being with Mademoiselle was quite the contrary. I was an observer. It’s interesting, photography has two avenues: one as a motivator, one as an observer. Are you going to watch or are you going to make something? That’s how the two superstars in my world differed.
An Evening With Marilyn by Douglas Kirkland
Buy online: http://www.amazon.com/Evening-Marilyn-Douglas-Kirkland/dp/1932183736/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265983735&sr=8-2
Who was the first celebrity you photographed?
About one year before Mademoiselle, I photographed Elizabeth Taylor. She was the beginning of my career photographing celebrities. Elizabeth had been sick and hadn’t been photographed in a photo session for about two years. She would give the magazine an interview but said no pictures. My editor asked me to go to Las Vegas with our movies editor to see if I could persuade her to do some photographs. I sat through the interview in a corner, totally silent not wanting to interrupt. At the end of the interview I walked over, took her hand and looked into her beautiful eyes, and said, “I’m new with this magazine, could you imagine what it would mean to me if I photographed you?” She told me to come the next day. The shot became a cover not only on Look magazine but also on Elle and ran all over the world.
Who else did you photograph at that time?
A month later I traveled with Judy Garland for one month because that’s how the publications did it. A couple of months later, Marlene Dietrich was selling a book to Look magazine and she had refused about six photographers because she was in her sixties and I think she was afraid of the camera. My editor asked me to do the shoot. That was October. Then Marilyn Monroe was November.
Which of your work are you most proud of?
Honestly, it may sound irrelevant but the Chanel work is some of my favorite. If I had to narrow it down, it’s what I’m most proud of. It’s not typical of my work. I usually worked with young Hollywood stars. You could add Marilyn to that list too.
You have been taking photographs since you were 14 and are now 75. How have you witnessed photography change over that time?
In the early days when a month was possible for Judy Garland, if I didn’t have that kind of time I would feel upset. As magazines got leaner and tighter, I found I could work faster and be comfortable with it. What was different is that you’d spend time with people; you’d go out for dinner with them, talk with them. We weren’t shooting all the time and that was a luxury that simply doesn’t exist anymore. You adapt to the realities of the time. The joy today is that we have computers, so we can refine the work and archive it. We have so much more command now.
What’s next for Douglas Kirkland?
My next book is about Michael Jackson and is called the Thriller Files, which will come out in September. I worked with him for four days for Life magazine and shot a lot. It was a very important four days. I have details of make-up being put on and taken off, and of different scenes being done for Thriller. It is such a smasher, it’s just amazing. For the last 20 years I’ve photographed directors and cinematographers, one every month, for a project for Kodak and its museum. The opportunities the camera has brought me have been wonderful.
More info:
http://www.douglaskirkland.com/
Douglas Kirkland: Mademoiselle Coco Chanel runs until March 3, 2010 at Galerie Basia Embiricos, Paris
http://www.galeriebasiaembiricos.com/basia-91-144-Douglas_Kirkland___COCO_CHANEL
Coco Chanel: Three Weeks/1962
Buy online: http://www.amazon.com/Coco-Chanel-Three-Weeks-1962/dp/0980155711/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265905818&sr=8-1
Click here to read our Arts Portfolio review of the exhibition.