Douglas Kirkland

Early Life

Douglas Kirkland grew up in Fort Erie, Ontario. His father was a tailor who made bespoke suits at a shop on Jarvis Street. Kirkland had vivid early memories of eagerly awaiting the weekly arrival of Life magazine. He spent time with his father every Friday at lunch going over each of the photographs the magazine contained, discussing what they meant. In various interviews, Kirkland credited his father and this ritual with instilling his love of photography.

Kirkland received his first camera — an inexpensive Kodak Brownie box camera — around the age of seven or eight, during the Second World War, when film was difficult for civilians to acquire. The very first photo he took was of his family, gathered on the front porch on a cold Christmas Day.

Education

Kirkland’s interest in photography developed while he was still a child. By his early teenage years, he was already working regularly as a wedding photographer. Around this time, he was accepted into Seneca Vocational High School, located across the Niagara River in Buffalo, New York. At the time, it was the only high school in North America to teach photography.

While in high school, Kirkland learned about the New York Institute of Photography. Determined to study there, he slept at a New York YMCA so he could attend its courses. He returned to Fort Erie when his parents became concerned that he might be drafted into the US Army during the Korean War.

Early Career

Kirkland continued working in Southern Ontario after high school, namely as a photographer for the Fort Erie Times-Review. He also worked for the Welland Tribune, where he claimed he learned how to “think editorially,” ensuring that he always took a photo worthy of being printed every time he went on assignment.

Believing that he would have better career prospects in the United States, Kirkland moved there and found work in a photography studio in Richmond, Virginia. His favourite photographer at the time was Irving Penn, who worked for Vogue. Kirkland wrote Penn several times, earning a reply on the third try. Though Penn didn’t have any full-time positions available for him, Kirkland nonetheless took the opportunity presented by Penn’s invitation to come meet him.

Penn ultimately provided Kirkland with a $65/week salary to work as his apprentice, requiring him to move with his young family to New Jersey. Kirkland accompanied Penn on a trip to Florida, working as his apprentice and helping to transport equipment, learning as much as he could along the way. It wouldn’t last long, as his salary was incapable of supporting his family. But in an interview, Kirkland recalled that it helped teach him important lessons about his art form and the impact it could have.

Kirkland returned with his family to Buffalo. This setback would be short-lived, however, as Kirkland was hired by Look magazine just two years later. At age 24, he became the second-youngest photographer ever hired by the influential American magazine, after filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, who was hired at age 17.

Career Highlights

While working at Look, Kirkland cemented his reputation as an expert photographer with a knack for intimate, artistic photographs. His 1961 photos of Marilyn Monroe, taken about a year before her death, became iconic almost instantly. Around this time, he also took important photographs of Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich and Judy Garland.

It was not uncommon at this point in his career for Kirkland to spend his weeks shooting day-to-day life across the United States and his weekends in exotic locales. His photo essays could run up to a dozen pages and were often seen by more than half of all Americans. Kirkland found his niche taking photos of Hollywood celebrities, thanks in part to his work ethic and the realism he brought to celebrities who often otherwise felt out of this world. Some of the many stars he photographed over the years included Sophia Loren, Catherine Deneuve, Charlie Chaplin, Coco Chanel, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Andy Warhol, Orson Welles, Mick Jagger, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Morgan Freeman and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Kirkland also worked for Life magazine — the same magazine that first inspired him to become a photographer — for one year before the magazine shut down in 1972.

Kirkland also had an extensive career as a film unit still photographer, shooting behind-the-scenes photographs of more than 100 movies, some of which were compiled into books. Among the many films Kirkland worked on were The Sound of Music (1965), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Saturday Night Fever (1977), Out of Africa (1985), Titanic (1997) and Moulin Rouge! (2001). His book James Cameron’s Titanic was the first picture book to reach No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.

Kirkland’s final project involved shooting the COVID-19 pandemic with an 8x10 film camera, a project he began in 2020.

Personal Life

During one of his stints photographing Audrey Hepburn, Kirkland met his second wife, Françoise, who was the daughter of Hepburn’s press agent. They were married until his death from natural causes at age 88. Kirkland and his first wife had three children together: Karen, Lisa and Mark. Mark Kirkland is an animation director who has directed many episodes of The Simpsons.

Collections

Kirkland’s work can be found in the Smithsonian Institution, the National Portrait Gallery (in London), the National Portrait Gallery of Australia (in Canberra) and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles.

Honours and Awards

Douglas Kirkland was the first still photographer to be admitted as an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers. He won numerous awards over the course of his career, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Camera Operators in 1995, a Lucie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Entertainment Photography in 2003 and a Golden Eye of Russia, awarded in April 2006.

In February 2011, the American Society of Cinematographers presented Kirkland with the President’s Award. He also received a special silver ribbon at the International Taormina Film Festival in the summer of 2015.

In September 2017, the Canadian consul general in Los Angeles presented Kirkland with the Award of Excellence, in recognition of the outstanding accomplishments of his life’s work. Recognizing Kirkland’s career in photography, the Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards (CAFA) gave Kirkland an outstanding achievement award in 2019.

(See also Photography in Canada.)