Bruce Weber (photographer)

Bruce Weber (born March 29, 1946) is an American fashion photographer and film director known for his work with fashion brands and magazines.

Weber has directed several films, including Let's Get Lost (1988), a documentary about jazz musician Chet Baker, and Chop Suey (2001), a portrait of a wrestler. Let's Get Lost received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature and a Cinecritica Award at the Venice Film Festival.

Weber has been accused of sexual assault by more than 20 models, and has been the subject of three lawsuits, all of which have reached settlements. His fashion photography first appeared in the late 1970s in GQ magazine, where he had frequent cover photos. Nan Bush, his longtime companion and agent, was able to secure a contract with Federated Department Stores to shoot the 1978 Bloomingdales mail catalog. He came to the attention of the general public in the late 1980s and early 1990s with his advertising images for Calvin Klein. He was first approached by Klein to work on an underwear campaign, and Weber took inspiration from Herbert List's shoot in Santorini. His photograph for Calvin Klein of Olympic athlete Tom Hintnaus in white briefs is an iconic image. He photographed the winter 2006 Ralph Lauren Collection.

thumb|A Weber photograph in the background on display at an [[Abercrombie and Fitch store]]

Some of Weber's earliest fashion photography appeared in the SoHo Weekly News and featured a spread of men wearing only underwear. The photos became the center of controversy and Weber was told by some that he would never find work as a fashion photographer again. This reputation stuck with him as he says: "I don't really work editorially in a large number of magazines because a lot of magazines don't want my kind of photographs. It's too risky for them."

After doing photo shoots for and of famous people (many of whom were featured in Andy Warhol's Interview magazine), Weber made short films of teenage boxers (Broken Noses), his beloved pet dogs, and later, a longer film entitled Chop Suey. He directed Let's Get Lost, a 1988 documentary about jazz trumpeter Chet Baker.

Weber's photographs are occasionally in color; however, most are in black and white or shades of a tone. as well as Bear Pond and Gentle Giants. The latter two are books of his photographs of his pet dogs.

Weber began collaborating with crooner Chris Isaak in the mid-1980s, photographing Isaak in 1986 for his second album, Chris Isaak. In 1988, Weber photographed a shirtless Isaak in bed for a fashion spread in Rolling Stone. Isaak appeared in Let's Get Lost and Weber has directed a music video for Isaak. Weber photographed Harry Connick, Jr. for his 1991 album Blue Light, Red Light. In 1993, Weber photographed singer-songwriter Jackson Browne for his 1993 album I'm Alive.

His ad campaigns include projects for Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Pirelli, Abercrombie & Fitch, Revlon, Miu Miu, Armani, Louis Vuitton and Gianni Versace. His editorial work has appeared in Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, Elle, Life, Interview, and Rolling Stones magazines.

thumb|Weber at [[Condé Nast publishing house in Milan]]

Museums and Libraries

Weber exhibits his work in prominent museums around the world, often working closely with the curator and art director Dimitri Levas to realize his vision. Weber's most recent solo shows include Far From Home at Dallas Contemporary (2016), Detroit: Bruce Weber at the Detroit Institute of Arts (2012), and Haiti/Little Haiti (2010) at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami.

Filmmaking

Weber's cinematic works—including his five feature-length films—often begin with a photo sitting. "All my films begin from finding someone I want to take a photograph of," Weber told the Sunday Times of London in 2008.

Broken Noses (1987)

While he was photographing the Olympic hopefuls for Interview Magazine in 1984, Weber met Andy Minsker, a young boxer from Oregon, and started interviewing him on camera. While he originally intended to make a short to accompany an exhibition he was opening in Paris, Weber became very excited when he reviewed the dailies and decided to continue the story. Broken Noses (1987), the resulting feature documentary, was nominated for the Grand Jury Award at Sundance in 1988.

Let's Get Lost (1988)

As Weber was completing work on Broken Noses, he met the jazz trumpeter and vocalist Chet Baker and began filming him, again with a mind to creating a short film based on their portrait sitting. The film features clips of Baker "in his prime in the 1950s...combined with his drug-damaged incarnation in the film's present day: gaunt and spaced out but still striking." Baker, Weber said, "was like a geyser in a national park. Exploding up and raining and raining back down, falling apart on everyone." The Sunday Times of London reviewed it as "an aesthetic autobiography, in which he ruminates on some of his heroes and inspirations." According to a New York Times review at the time the film "moves easily between video and film and between black-and-white and color as Mr. Weber explores the world around him, a world that he finds full of beauty and erotic possibility. One of his most engaging discoveries is the 91-year-old Sir Wilfred, who as a young desert explorer made photographs of Bedouin tribesman that prefigure Mr. Weber's own work."

A Letter to True (2004)

Weber released the impressionistic anti-war film A Letter to True in 2004, in the aftermath of 9/11, and addressed to one of Weber's beloved golden retrievers." The film is an 'audiovisual scrapbook' In a review of the film The Sunday Times of London details how Weber rhapsodises over some of his favourite people, memories and ideas. (He) is a shameless old softie for whom dogs are emblematic of a happy home, (and)‘cherishes domestic security amid the fear created by the…attacks."

The Treasure of His Youth (2022)

Weber's fifth feature-length film focuses on the prominent Italian photojournalist Paolo Di Paolo, who was 94 when Weber began shooting the documentary.

Short films

His work-in-progress Robert Mitchum feature, Nice Girls Don't Stay for Breakfast was screened at the New York Film Festival in 2017. He has also directed seven short films: Beauty Brothers, Parts I-IV (1987), Backyard Movie (1991), Gentle Giants (1994), The Teddy Boys of the Edwardian Drape Society (1995), Wine and Cupcakes (2007), The Boy Artist (2008), and Liberty City is Like Paris to Me (2009). The suit also targets Jason Kanner of Soul Artist Management, which managed Boyce when the alleged assault took place, and Little Bear Inc., the production company operated by Weber's companion, Nan Bush. A second model, Mark Ricketson, came forward in December 2017 alleging similar claims and joined Boyce's lawsuit against Weber.

Weber has denied the allegations, stating to The New York Times that the allegations were "untrue" and that he had "never touched anyone inappropriately".

In January 2018, The New York Times detailed sexual assault allegations by 15 male models against Weber.

By 2020, the Plaintiffs' cases against Weber began to face apparent setbacks, and in June 2020, Lisa Bloom, a high-powered harassment claims lawyer representing Weber's accusers in various suits, was ordered to pay Weber $28,000 in legal costs after Boyce refused to answer certain questions at a deposition.

By September 2021, the 3 cases against Weber were each either dismissed or settled for undisclosed sums.

On 3 April 2024, The Hollywood Reporter published an interview on Alan Ritchson wherein the Reacher star comments on prior allegations against Weber and Mario Testino reported by The New York Times:

<blockquote>Some of the stories were just like mine. I was just starting to build a platform and get my voice in the business, and I wondered, ‘Should I say something?’ Because all of the stories that those models were telling were my own. It’s all true.</blockquote>

Personal life

Weber is married to Nan Bush who is also his agent and one of his collaborators.

In a 2002 interview he said, "I've had a lot of great romances. Men and women, I mean I feel like I can fall in love almost every day. I feel sorry for people who don't feel that."

Films

{| class="wikitable"

! Year

! Title

! Length

! Cast

|- valign="top"

| rowspan=2 | 1987

| Broken Noses

| 75:00

| Andy Minsker

|- valign="top"

| Beauty Brothers (Part I-IV)

| 12:26

| Paul Dillon, Brian Dillon, Tim Dillon, Rodney Harvey, Maya Oloe

|- valign="top"

| 1988

| Let's Get Lost

| 119:25

| Chet Baker, Chris Isaak, William Claxton, Flea, Lisa Marie, Rodney Harvey

|- valign="top"

| 1991

| Backyard Movie

| 8:55

|- valign="top"

| 1994

| Gentle Giants

| 14:35

|- valign="top"

| 1995

| The Teddy Boys of the Edwardian Drape Society

| 3:45

| Tobey Maguire

|- valign="top"

| 2000

| Chop Suey

| 94:00

| Peter Johnson, Robert Mitchum, Diana Vreeland, Frances Faye, Jan-Michael Vincent

|- valign="top"

| 2003

| A Letter to True

| 78:00

| Julie Christie (narrator), Marianne Faithfull (narrator), Dirk Bogarde, Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Smith, Tully Jensen

|- valign="top"

| rowspan=3 | 2006

| The Legend of True

| 11:35

|- valign="top"

| A Tribute To The Delta Society

| 2:23

|- valign="top"

| Best Friends

| 3:44

|- valign="top"

| 2007

| Wine and Cupcakes

| 12:10

| Angela McCluskey, Paul Cantelon

|- valign="top"

| rowspan=3 | 2008

| Looking for Chet, Again, In All The Familiar Places

| 25:00

|- valign="top"

| The Boy Artist

| 9:00

|- valign="top"

| You Feel Me?

| 3:36

|- valign="top"

| 2009

| Liberty City Is Like Paris To Me

| 16:00

|- valign="top"

| 2014

| Iris

| 79:00

| Iris Apfel

|2022

|The Treasure of His Youth: The Photographs of Paolo Di Paolo

|105:00

| Paolo Di Paolo

|- valign="top"

| All-American' Documentary Series

| (Work-in-progress)

|- valign="top"

| Nice Girls Don't Stay For Breakfast: Robert Mitchum Documentary, Paolo Di Paolo Documentary (Work-in-progress)

| (Work-in-progress)

|CZ Guest Documentary project

| (Work in progress)

Music videos

In 1990, Weber directed the music video for the Pet Shop Boys single "Being Boring". He filmed a party with a diverse group of models. The video was filmed in one day by two film crews in a house on Long Island. Content including male and female nudity prevented the video from being played on MTV in the United States. In 1996 he directed the video for the Pet Shop Boys single "Se a vida é (That's the Way Life Is)" on location in a Wet 'n' Wild, a water park near Orlando, Florida. In 2002, he again directed a Pet Shop Boys video, for the song "I Get Along" from the album Release. Weber filmed this video on location at his own Little Bear studio in New York City. He also directed the music video for the Chris Isaak song "Blue Spanish Sky".

{| class="wikitable"

! Year

! Song title

! Length

! Artist

! Album

|- valign="top"

| 1988

| Everything Happens to Me

| 3:42

| Chet Baker

| Let's Get Lost (Soundtrack album)

|- valign="top"

| 1990

| Being Boring

| 4:55

| Pet Shop Boys

| Behaviour

|- valign="top"

| 1991

| Blue Spanish Sky

| 4:13

| Chris Isaak

| Wicked Game

|- valign="top"

| 1996

| Se a vida é (That's the Way Life Is)

| 4:50

| Pet Shop Boys

| Bilingual

|- valign="top"

| rowspan=2 | 2002

| I Get Along

| 5:46

| Pet Shop Boys

| Release

|- valign="top"

| Light My Fire

| 3:44

| Will Young

| From Now On

Bibliography

Books and monographs

{| class="wikitable"

! Year

! Title

! Publisher

! Genre

|- valign="top"

| 1977

| Looking Good: A Guide For Men

| Hawthorn Books (U.S.)

| by Charles Hicks; all pictures by Weber

|- valign="top"

| 1978

| Etre Beau: Un Guide Pour Les Hommes

| Guy Authier (France)

| French edition of Looking Good: A Guide For Men

|- valign="top"

| 1983

| Bruce Weber

| Twelvetrees Press (U.S.)

| First monograph

|- valign="top"

| 1983

| The Sun and the Shade Florida Photography, 1885–1983

| Norton Gallery West Palm Beach (U.S.)

| Exhibition catalog for an exhibit curated by Weber

|- valign="top"

| rowspan=2 | 1984

| Interview Magazine

| Andy Warhol/Interview (U.S.)

| Special edition on American Athletes of the 1984 Olympic Games; all pictures by Weber

|- valign="top"

| Photographs Of Athletes

| Olympus Gallery (U.K.)

| Published upon the exhibition held in London (U.K.) at the Olympus Gallery

|- valign="top"

| rowspan=2 | 1986

| O Rio De Janeiro

| Alfred A. Knopf (U.S.)

| Monograph

|- valign="top"

| Summer Diary 1986

| Condé Nast (Vogue Italia) (Italy)

| Special insert of the Italian magazine Per Lui; all pictures by Weber

|- valign="top"

| rowspan=2 | 1987

| The Andy Book

| Doeisha Co., Ltd. (Japan)

| Monograph on Andy Minsker, star of Broken Noses

|- valign="top"

| Bruce Weber

| Idea Books (Italy)

| Catalogue of the exhibition held in Venice (Italy) at Palazzo Fortuny

|- valign="top"

| 1989

| Bruce Weber

| Alfred A. Knopf (U.S.)

| Monograph

|- valign="top"

| rowspan="2" | 1990

| Bear Pond

| Bulfinch Press (U.S.)

| Monograph

|- valign="top"

| Great Contemporary Nudes 1978–1990

| C-Two Gallery (Japan)

| Published upon the exhibition held in Tokyo. (Box containing three books dedicated to the three participating photographers, Weber, Robert Mapplethorpe and Herb Ritts.)

|- valign="top"

| rowspan="3" | 1991

| Bruce Weber

| Fahey Klein Gallery Parco Exposure Gallery (U.S. / Japan)

| Published upon the exhibition held in: New York at the Fahey Klein Gallery and in Tokyo at the Parco Exposure Gallery

|- valign="top"

| Calvin Klein Jeans

| Condé Nast (Vogue) Calvin Klein (U.S.)

| Speciale insert of Vanity Fair, all pictures by Weber

|- valign="top"

| Bear Pond

| Treville

| Monograph

|- valign="top"

| 1992

| Hotel Room With A View: Photographs by Bruce Weber

| Smithsonian Institution (U.S.)

| "Photographers at Work", A Smithsonian Series

|- valign="top"

| rowspan="2" | 1994

| Gentle Giants

| Bulfinch Press (U.S.)

| Monograph dedicated to the Newfoundland dogs

|- valign="top"

| No Valet Parking

| Photology (Italy)

| published upon the exhibition held in Milan (Italy) at the Galleria Photology

|- valign="top"

| rowspan="2" | 1996

| A House Is Not A Home

| Bulfinch Press (U.S.)

| Monograph

|- valign="top"

| You Can Take The Boy Out Of Vietnam But You Can't Take Vietnam Out Of The Boy

| Condé Nast (Vogue Italia) (Italy)

| Special insert of the Italian magazine L'Uomo Vogue published upon the exhibition Vietnam, Versace, Viaggi, Weber, held in Milan at Palazzo Reale

|- valign="top"

| rowspan="2" | 1997

| Branded Youth and Other Stories

| Bulfinch Press (U.S.)

| Monograph

|- valign="top"

| Pirelli Calendar

| Pirelli (Italy)

| 1998 Calendar, starring: Patricia Arquette • Georgina Grenville • Daryl Hannah • Shalom Harlow • Eva Herzigova • Kirsty Hume • Elaine Irwin Mellencamp • Milla Jovovich •Kiara Kabukuru • Tanga Moreau • Carolyn Murphy • Rachel Roberts • Stella Tennant and B.B. King • Bono • Paul Cadmus • Francesco Clemente • Kris Kristofferson • John Malkovich • Ewan McGregor • Dermot Mulroney • Dan O'Brien • Sonny Rollins • Kelly Slater • Fred Ward

|- valign="top"

| 1998

| The Chop Suey Club

| Arena Editions (U.S.)

| Monograph on Peter Johnson

|- valign="top"

| 2000

| Stern Magazine

| TeNeues Publishing Stern Portfolio (Germany)

| Spezial Fotografie Portfolio Number 22

|- valign="top"

| rowspan="2" | 2001

| Roadside America

| TeNeues Publishing Stern Portfolio (Germany)

| Monograph No. 22 of the "Stern Portfolio" series

|- valign="top"

| Pirelli Calendar

| Pirelli (Italy)

| 2003 Calendar, starring: Alessandra Ambrosio • Mariacarla Boscono • Sophie Dahl • Yamila Diaz-Rahi • Isabeli Fontana • Bridget Hall • Filippa Hamilton • Heidi Klum • Karolína Kurková • Jessica Miller • Sienna Miller • Rana Raslan • Eva Riccobono • Lisa Seiffert • Valentina Stilla • Natalia Vodianova and Marcelo Boldrini • Stéphane Ferrara • Tomasino Ganesh • Alessandro Gassman • Jak Krauszer • Ajay Lamas • Richie Lamontagne • Enrico Lo Verso • Davide Battista • Massimo Boninsegna • Giuseppe Conte • Luca di Marino • Pasquale Malzone • Raffaele Marciano • Alberto Perini • Serafino Roncacè

|- valign="top"

| 2003

| Hope: A Letter To True

| Condé Nast (Vogue Italia) (Italy)

| Special insert of the Italian magazine L'Uomo Vogue

|- valign="top"

| 2004

| Stern Magazine

| TeNeues Publishing Stern Portfolio (Germany)

| Spezial Fotografie Portfolio Number 38 "Home Is Where The Heart Is"

|- valign="top"

| rowspan="2" | 2005

| Blood Sweat And Tears: Or How I Stopped Worrying And Learned to Love Fashion

| TeNeues Publishing (Germany)

| Monograph

|- valign="top"

| Filmography

| Kinetique Tokyo (Japan)

| Published upon the exhibition held in Tokyo at the Original True Gallery

|- valign="top"

| 2006

| Kate Moss Is The Girl That Got Away

| Condé Nast (Vogue Paris) (France)

| Special insert of the French magazine Vogue Hommes International on Kate Moss

|- valign="top"

| 2007

| Sex And Words

| Visionaire (U.S.)

| Monograph

|- valign="top"

| rowspan="2" | 2009

| Roberto Bolle An Athlete In Tights

| TeNeues Publishing (Germany)

| Monograph on Roberto Bolle

|- valign="top"

| Cartier I Love You

| TeNeues Publishing (Germany)

| Celebrating 100 Years of Cartier in America

|- valign="top"

| rowspan="2" | 2010

| rowspan="2" | Standing Tall: Portraits of the Haitian Community in Miami, 2003–2010

| rowspan="2" | Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (U.S.)

| Published for the exhibition held in Miami at the Museum of Contemporary Art

|- valign="top"

| 2012

| All-American Volume 12: A Book Of Lessons

| TeNeues Publishing (Germany)

| 12th book of the "All-American" series

|- valign="top"

| 2013

| All-American Volume 13: Born Ready

| TeNeues Publishing (Germany)

| 13th book of the "All-American" series

|- valign="top"

| rowspan="2" | 2014

| Detroit Has Been Good To Me

| Little Bear Press (U.S.)

| Monograph

|- valign="top"

| All-American Volume 14: Affairs of the Heart

| TeNeues Publishing (Germany)

| 14th book of the "All-American" series

|- valign="top"

| 2015

| All-American Volume 15: Leap of Faith

| TeNeues Publishing (Germany)

| 15th book of the "All-American" series

|- valign="top"

| 2019

| Holiday Magazine The Egypt Issue

| Holiday Magazine (France)

| Photography capturing the essence of Egypt's people and culture

Little Bear Press

Bruce and his wife, Nan, began the publishing imprint Little Bear Press where, in addition to monographs and exhibition catalogs, they have published an independent arts journal titled All-American. While some volumes have been published by external publishers, the bulk of the series has been published by Little Bear Press. The All-American publishes works by artists, photographers, essayists, poets and other personalities. The subjects of the journal are sometimes already well known but just as often, the participants and subjects of All-American are noteworthy not for fame, but because their stories or accomplishments reveal something that Weber believes will resonate with readers on a deeper and more personal level. His dedication to the All-American project is motivated by a desire to connect, inspire, and support the work of emerging artists.