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In the early Sixties, a young photographer named Douglas Kirkland was sent to photograph Marilyn Monroe for a special edition of Look magazine. "I was scared to death," says Kirkland today, "I didn't sleep nights before the session." Today, things are a bit different for the 63-year-old photographer. With a resume which includes shooting over 100 motion picture sets (in cluding Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Out of Africa and Titanic) and celebrity portraits of everyone from Marlene Dietrich to Robert DeNiro, it's his subjects who are probably the ones losing sleep over shoots these days. PDN catches up with the man behind the images of the highest grossing film of all time.
PDN: Who were your biggest inspirations when you were starting out? Now?
Douglas Kirkland: When I was younger, the inspirations for the day were David Douglas Duncan, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Cartier-Bresson and later, Irving Penn, whom I was an assistant for. More recently I have been admiring some of the older photographers like Jacques-Henri Lartigue and Man Ray. Also Avedon and his fantastic career.
PDN: What about outside of photography?
DK: There are so many. Since I've been working with him lately, James Cameron comes to mind. We grew up 20 miles from each other in Canada and we have the same birthday, August 16. He may be a little difficult to work with at times, but I really respect him. He is a genius.
PDN: What are the things you concentrate on as a photographer on a movie set?
DK: I think there are three essential things you must focus on as a still photographer on...