Bruce Weber

Weber's photos--mostly portraits and nudes of male models and friends--were also seen in magazines, with his canvas enlarging from ROCK'N'FOLK to THE SOHO WEEKLY NEWS to GQ. In the late 70s, Weber began photographing ads for Calvin Klein and his nearly-naked, sometimes odd-looking, eroticized male and female models shocked, titillated and sometimes disgusted the public. He has also photographed numerous campaigns for Ralph Lauren, featuring less bizarre, more covered models. Weber's editorial portrait work has also been seen regularly in such high-gloss magazines as VANITY FAIR, VOGUE, INTERVIEW and others. His work has been seen in shows worldwide, and Weber has compiled more than half a dozen books.Weber turned to film with the boxing documentary "Broken Noses" (1987), which concentrated on Portland-area boxer and trainer Andy Minsker. His next, a documentary on jazz trumpeter Chet Baker, "Let's Get Lost" (1989), garnered much acclaim at film festivals and earned positive critical reviews. This dark, intense examination of Baker's "cool, west coast jazz," his life and struggle with drugs was a far cry from the air-brushed underwear models for which Weber had become best-known. In 1992, Weber released a nine-minute short, "Backyard Movie," which consisted of old home movies supplemented by the director's own childhood fantasies. Three years later came the experimental short "Gentle Giants," a tribute to the Newfoundland breed of dog.