Cinema Retro has just learned that famed photographer William Claxton has passed away at age 80. He was one of Steve McQueen's best friends and was afforded extraordinary access to his private life. Claxton commemorated these photos in a book, which has just been reissued by Taschen publishers. Here is Dean Brierly's review of the previous editon, which gives insight into the relationship between Claxton and McQueen.
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WILLIAM CLAXTON: MCQUEEN
(Taschen Publishing)
By Dean
Brierly
What do you get when
you combine a great American actor with a great American photographer? Arguably
the coolest celebrity photo book ever published.Which is only
fitting when the actor happens to be Steve McQueen, the cinematic icon who
redefined the word “cool†during the 1960s, and the photographer is William
Claxton, who photographed many of the hippest record covers in jazz history. The
two men shared a close friendship during the early 1960s, a period in which
Claxton photographed McQueen extensively, both at work on film sets and at play
between films.
That kind of access
would be impossible today, when a movie star’s contact with the media is meted
out in small, rigidly controlled portions. The typical celebrity image that
results is notable only for its vacuity. In contrast, Claxton didn’t need to
rely on the whims of some handler to photograph McQueen, who would often phone
Claxton early in the morning to invite him on motorcycle racing excursions in
the desert. The two men also shared a passion for fast cars, and would
frequently tool around Los Angeles in McQueen's Jaguar XK-SS.
On
such occasions, McQueen let down his guard and revealed to
Claxton’s trusted camera facets of his character less familiar to the general
public than the ultra-cool persona—his warmth and empathy, his emotional
vulnerability, his mischievous sense of humor. These qualities are also evident
in pictures Claxton made on the sets of early McQueen films. The photographer
captures the star joyously embracing a friend from his early hardscrabble years
in New York during the filming of Love with the Proper
Stranger; sharing a tender between-takes moment with his first
wife Neile; and playfully riding a mechanical horse in a five-and-dime store on
location for Baby, the Rain Must Fall in Wharton,
Texas.
Naturally, Claxton also focused on McQueen’s trademark intensity:
An electric image sequence of the actor participating in a cross-country
motorcycle race in the Mojave Desert recalls McQueen’s breakout performance as
the rebellious, motorcycle-riding prisoner in The Great
Escape. The photographs underscore how much the actor’s
onscreen cool was rooted in his physical being. His lithe, lean frame and
catlike grace translated into the confidence and strength of character his fans
responded to in such signature films as Bullitt and The Thomas Crown
Affair.
A class act, Claxton
never abused his friendship with McQueen, never exploited it for sensation’s
sake. McQueen trusted Claxton to the extent that he even allowed himself to be
photographed lighting up a joint. It’s impossible to imagine an actor of similar
stature doing so today. (Not that there are any stars of similar stature working
today.) Claxton, of course, refrained from publishing it until it could do no
harm to the late actor’s reputation. Refreshingly—and fittingly, considering
McQueen's down-to-earth personality—Claxton's book isn’t weighed down by
pretentious essays. Instead, the photographer’s witty anecdotal comments are
sprinkled throughout in unobtrusive caption form, supporting the pictures rather
than competing with them. Most of the images are in black-and-white, with a
smattering in color. They range from polished publicity portraits to gritty
candid shots, many of them heretofore unpublished.
William
Claxton's warm and spontaneous pictures tellingly capture Steve McQueen’s rugged
individualism and unassailable self-assurance during the heady years of the
actor’s nascent stardom. But perhaps more important, they convey the sheer,
unadulterated joy McQueen took in the art of living life to the full, and
there’s nothing cooler than that.