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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Douglas Kirkland: Master Of The Parka

Connect world-renowned photographer Douglas Kirkland with an iconic, 180-year clothing brand famous for both style and substance, mix in 18 arts, film and music legends, and you get a collection of images that reveals the diverse facets of each

This Article Features Photo Zoom

Erika Lemay composited with an image of the Milky Way that Kirkland made in Chile.

With free rein, Kirkland photo-graphed Lemay upside down in the traditional portrait, and he composited the digital image. The end results, much like the techniques used, are utterly different.

"I have a picture that I did years ago of the Milky Way when I was doing astronomy work in Chile," Kirkland says, "and I took that and put Erika essentially flying through the stars with the jacket chasing her like a satellite. They gave me carte blanche to do anything I wanted. How often does this happen?"

Kirkland didn't always use digital compositing to create the color images, though the technique did come in handy a few times. He employed multiple exposures with the acrobatic Lemay, as well as when he photographed the music group Maxim Ludwig & The Santa Fe Seven.

"On that one," Kirkland explains, "it's a very traditional image of the group done with the 8x10. Then you go back to them on the Strip where they play often at The Roxy, and I did some compositing there. I was going to take them out on the Strip without compositing, and I found that it was nearly impossible because of police regulations. It would have cost a fortune; it would have stopped traffic. I photographed them knowing I would put them in this; I went over to the Strip on three or four busy evenings just to get a feel for it before I photographed them. That's their favorite place, so that's why it went there."

The high energy in this image contrasts decidedly with the subdued, timeless quality of the group's black-and-white portrait. This is the subtle message Kirkland was hoping to send throughout the project. No matter how trends change, the parka itself—much like a classic portrait—always remains in style.


Kirkland used a multitude of techniques in the making of the images, although the lighting approach always remained minimal. With the Deardorff and Kodak TRI-X sheet film, Kirkland relied on soft, ambient light to evoke the timeless feel of 19th-century portraits, though he did employ a decidedly 21st-century accessory.

"I have a Litepanels LED light," says Kirkland. "I love it. I just dial in a slight fill. That's the only thing I do on those shots. If I can keep it simple, I do. I do the elaborate setups, too, for certain clients, with multiple strobes and everything. Sometimes it's overkill and sometimes it's to please a client and make them feel comfortable. But I always start simple and build from that. Don't bring in too much."

Though working with the 8x10 camera allows less room for spontaneity, the DSLR and a handheld flash are built for improvisation. That's what Kirkland employed when he photographed Dominik García-Lorido, and it again translates directly into the image content.