Proud Chelsea presents Bob Willoughby: The Silver Age of Hollywood, an exquisite homage to the man widely credited with inventing the photojournalistic motion picture still.
The first “outside” photographer to be hired by studios to document the filming of their movies and in essence capture the soul of each film, Willoughby’s photographs dominated the pages of culture and lifestyle magazines throughout the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. This prestigious collection of limited edition, signed, silver gelatin prints features stars like Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Sean Connery, Frank Sinatra, and James Dean in front of and behind the camera in some of their most iconic motion pictures.
Known for his artfully informal pictures of gamine actress Audrey Hepburn, Willoughby’s big break came when his shot of Judy Garland on the set of “A Star is Born” made the front cover of Life Magazine. Before long the editors of top publications became Willoughby devotees: commissioned to capture behind the scenes moments of big movies, he was often on assignment for as many as seven different publications for any one film and would style his shots according to each magazine’s aesthetic. Willoughby also led the way in technology: commissioning radio controls and soundproof housings for his cameras in order to get the shots other photographers might have missed.
Bob Willoughby: The Silver Age of Hollywood boasts photographs from the sets of feature films such as The Graduate, Rebel Without A Cause, My Fair Lady, Ocean’s Eleven and Rosemary’s Baby, and offers an opportunity to see Hollywood stars in and out of character; in moments of high drama and at their most relaxed. Willoughby captures a striking James Dean pouring over his script, a deeply pensive Jane Fonda rehearsing her lines, and some on-set tension abated by a food fight between Blake Edwards and Natalie Wood. The exhibition also includes Willoughby’s first photograph of Audrey Hepburn when the pair met at Paramount Studios.
Directors immersed in the moment, actors surrounded by dramatic whirls of smoke, and starlets lounging in costume; Proud Chelsea delivers a truly beautiful retrospective of Willoughby’s career behind the scenes of the silver screen.
Bob Willoughby was born June 30, 1927, Los Angeles, California. At age 12, Willoughby was given his first camera, and by the time he was at film school he was already working for Hollywood photographers such as Wallace Seawell, Paul Hesse, and Glenn Embree.
Willoughby’s work is in the permanent collections of numerous international galleries and museums. A close relationship with many of his subjects gave Willoughby an insight that eludes most other photographers and it is precisely this added dimension that prompted Proud Galleries to host Sinatra: An Intimate Collection in 2002 and The Audrey Collection in 2011.
In 1972 Willoughby moved with his family to Ireland, where he continued to work, illustrating ancient Irish poetry with images of the landscape. In 1991, with the children now off on their own, he and his wife Dorothy moved to the south of France. He passed away at his home in Vence in 2009.
Gilles Decamps
Bob Willoughby: The Silver Age of Hollywood
8th November 2012 – 13th January 2013
Proud Chelsea
161 King’s Road
SW3 5XP London – UK
