Many actors, musicians and other artists have pursued second artistic careers during or after their main career. Many times there was a passion for creativity that could not be contained within one art form. Actors have pursued painting, sculpture and photography. Many photographers have wanted to expand their art to filmmaking. Sculptures want to paint and painters want to sculpt. Artists of all kinds look to expand their vision though various media. It comes out of the desire to create. In this short essay I take a look at three actors and one musician who went on to express themselves in the art of photography.
Art was not the reason Dennis Hopper first began to photograph. There was another reason. In 1958, the then young rebellious actor was blackballed in Hollywood after working with director Henry Hathaway on a film called From Hell to Texas. During the filming, Hopper insisted on doing a scene one way while the director demanded doing it differently. It turned into an epic battle of wills that went on for a couple of days. The tough veteran Hathaway eventually won over the young hotshot. With the film finished, and with Hathaway’s influence at the time in the industry, he told Hopper he would never work in this town again! Hopper’s film career tanked. He was stuck doing mostly a few TV shows and a few independent films. That was until 1965 when he made The Sons of Katie Elder, once again directed by Henry Hathaway. This time, Hopper behaved and listened. He worked without a problem and was forgiven. He was back.
Artist Ed Ruscha by Dennis Hopper
During the period Hopper was ostracized he picked up a camera and began to photograph. His work was noticed in some circles and he began to build a second career. His work included photographing film actors of the day as well as more abstract photos. In 1966, some of his photos were used as the cover art for the Ike and Tina Turner hit single, River Deep, Mountain High. Hopper’s photographs were always full frame. He never cropped. He saw this as a training ground for making movies. Dennis Hopper also painted and wrote poetry. Over the years, his photographic art and paintings have been exhibited around the world.
Gina Lollbrigida shows off her photography
Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida began a second career as a photojournalist when her film career began to fade away. With her access to many of the top stars of the day, she photographed actors like Audrey Hepburn and Paul Newman. She also worked with some of the biggest political figures of the day like Henry Kissinger and even beat every other photojournalist with an interview and photo session of Cuban leader, Fidel Castro. Her work has been exhibited and published in two books.
Mia Farrow by Roddy McDowall
Roddy McDowall was well known around Hollywood for photographing his multitude of famous friends. They included stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, Sammy Davis Jr., Katherine Hepburn and Mae West. His work was published in magazines like Life, Look and Vogue among others. This second career also included the publication of five books of his photography. After his death in 1998, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences named their photo archive after him.
Musician Graham Nash’s interest in photography began as a child of ten. When he began touring with The Hollies, Nash was always photographing while on the road. His work reflects intimate moments with former band members, lovers, other musicians as well as landscapes and other sites that he found a meaningful connection with and wanted to capture. Nash once said, “I don’t see the difference between photography and music. To me, it’s all energy.”
Portrait of Joni Mitchell by Graham Nash
In the 1970’s he began to collect photographs. By the late 70’s his collection was in the thousands, and with the help a curator mounted an exhibit that traveled to more than twelve museums around the world. In 1990, he sold his more than 2,000 print collection through Sotheby’s Auction House. Eye to Eye: Photographs by Graham Nash, a collection of his work was as published in 2004.
There are many other artists who have taken a serious interest in photography including Leonard Nimoy who studied and took classes at UCLA back in the 1970’s. At one point, he even considered changing his career. Nimoy received much recognition, and some controversy, for his work over the years. Jeff Bridges, Yul Brynner, Joel Grey, Vigo Mortenson, Mick Fleetwood, Lou Reed and Mathew Modine are a few others who have picked up the camera. Most recently, Ringo Starr put together a limited edition book of his photographs, appropriately called Photograph. The pictures were taken over the years including many behind the scene shots of his fellow Beatles during those early days. All the money for Ringo’s book is going to charities he and his wife, Barbara Bach, support.
Note: This essay originally appeared on my blog Twenty Four Frames in a slightly different version.
Though H. L. Menchen has been dead since 1956, many of his words are more relevant today in this nasty and despicable political climate than ever. For those unaware, Menchen was a journalist and critic. A man of ideas. In the 1960 film, Inherit the Wind, the character of newspaper journalist E.K. Hornbeck, portrayed by Gene Kelly, was based on Menchen.
Back in the 1970’s, after my discharge from the Army, I enrolled in a class at the New York Institute of Photography. I got interested in photography after I purchased my first 35mm camera while stationed in Vietnam and later learned some darkroom development techniques while stationed in Germany. I bring this up only because the instructor during one session asked the class who they thought was a better photographer, Richard Avedon or Gordon Parks. Why he selected these two I don’t remember. Anyway, I made it known that I thought Parks was the better photographer. The instructor who I later classified as a typical know it all who liked to belittle people told me how I was wrong and that Avedon was the better of the two. The class laughed as he seemed to go on about my choice and belittling me in the process. I shrunk into a quiet embarrassed mode. I hated the class for the rest of the few weeks that I silently attended before dropping out.
Huddie Ledbetter, aka Leadbelly, aka Lead Belly was one of America’s great folk/blues singers. His influence on artists such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bob Dylan, Johnny Rivers, Tom Waits, Ry Cooder, Elvis Presley and so many others has been well documented in their recordings. Huddie was inducted into the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame back in 1988.
One of the finest parts of the film comes early on when Huddie meets Blind Lemon Jefferson. Lemon, another soon to be blues legend, is superbly played by Art Evans (Die Hard 2, A Soldier’s Story and many, many TV shows). The two bluesmen team up for a while performing on the road (in real life it was about two years). In one scene during this period they sing for white people at a dance party. It turns ugly when the evening begins to get late and Huddie decides to pack it in. However, one of the white folks wants him to continue and a fight ensues with Huddie getting badly beaten. It always seems even when Huddie wasn’t looking for trouble, it found him.
The first time I watched Leadbelly was way back in ’76 at the time of its release. It was at the Loew’s State in Times Square. The showing I went to had a couple of live special guests, folksingers Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee who met Leadbelly after he became a regular in the New York City folk scene. They reminiscence about their friend and sang some of his best known songs. It was a unique chance to see these two artists and learn a little more about their friend and a true legend.
One of the many birds we came across during our time there was the Anhinga. It’s a fairly large bird, about 35 inches in height, that is mainly found in South America, Central America and the Southern Coastal United States. Many times you will find them along the coastal waters with their wings spread out drying them in the sun. Like Cormorants, which they resemble, Anhinga’s are water birds, however, lacking oil glands they are not waterproof. Subsequently, after swimming in the water they need to dry off their wings otherwise they would not be able to fly.
Bernie first appeared in 1977 with Burglars Can’t Be Choosers. With his second outing, the series settled in a series of titles beginning with The Burglar Who… With the third book in the series, The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling, published in 1979, Bernie acquired a bookstore in Greenwich Village. Eventually, Bernie got a cat he named Raffles, a gift from his best friend and Village soulmate Carolyn Kaiser. After all, what second hand bookstore doesn’t need a cat?
In 2014, an excellent adaptation was made of his novel, A Walk Among the Tombstones, with Liam Neeson as Scudder. Until this film, Block had not had much luck with his work being transferred to the screen. From Nightmare Honeymoon to Burglar, one was worst than the other. In the latter film, Bernie was transformed into Bernice and portrayed by Whoopi Goldberg. Nothing against Ms. Goldberg, but who the hell thought this was a good idea?
John Greco Author/Photographer 