David Cluett
David Cluett was shooting film on his Kodak Brownie camera at age 10 and developing his film in a darkroom at a summer camp on Cape Cod in the early ’60s. Over the years a camera was never far from his eye.
As a teenager he found himself shooting Rock and Roll musicians on stage in recording studios and in their private lives and selling the pictures to various rock magazines. Rock stars had model girlfriends, and soon he was shooting pictures for their portfolios, and eventually for the top Model Agencies in New York City, Zoli, Elite, Ford, Wilhelmina...
David moved to Los Angeles in 1974 and attended the University of Southern California, where he studied film and literature and continued shooting music-associated jobs and model agency work. He moved to a house on the beach in Malibu where he honed his skill as a fashion photographer, eventually landing national campaigns with swim and sportswear companies.
After graduating, Cluett traveled around the world for 6 months, shooting various freelance jobs, including an assignment with Newsweek Magazine covering the exodus of Cambodian Refugees into Thailand in 1979. On returning from his world tour, David took jobs as a highly paid assistant to established top photographers shooting in LA, NY and locations around the world.
In 1984, David moved to Paris, France, with his model and muse girlfriend, where he shot fashion and beauty jobs for European magazines and catalogs. During this time, he was in the vanguard of fashion photographers bringing their clients to Miami’s South Beach as it emerged as the go-to location for fashion photography in the early 1980’s.
In the late 1990s, David returned from France to NYC and established “Sandbox Studios” in Soho, which became a favorite space for top magazines, ad agencies, T.V., and film production. Clients included Conde Nast, Vanity Fair, Italian Vogue, Rolling Stone, NBC News Dateline, and many others.
Sandbox Studios closed its doors just before 9/11/2001, and David returned to his Connecticut home and family to raise his daughter, Skylar, and look after his aging mother. Never retiring, David has since worked with his archives, moving film images to digital and expressing new work from the effort. His show “The Big Pictures” is a sampling of that venture and is the first look at images resulting from 50 years behind the lens.
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Norma Kamali Swim Greenwich, Connecticut 1982 This iconic one-piece swimsuit design was a singular sensation at the time. Norma Kamali was at her zenith in the early 1980’s. Her work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Suzy Fire Island New York 1984 Antebellum Fire Island Fire Island, a short bus ride from NYC, was the center of gay culture, before AIDS burned through the community beginning in the early 1980s. “The rom-com ‘Fire Island’ debuting June 3, 2022, is set on that coastal community off Long Island, favored by queer New Yorkers as far back as the 1930s. The scenic locale — free of cars and inhabited by a population of white-tailed deer — has served as a film backdrop before, most notably in Ryan Murphy’s 2014 adaptation of ‘The Normal Heart’ for HBO, and before that in the 1989 ensemble drama ‘Longtime Companion’”. My hair and make-up artist for this picture, Angel, was a regular in The Pines that summer. I remember the fear and anxiety creeping into the party, like an ugly uninvited guest... The last news I heard of Angel was that he was infected and had lost many friends to the disease.
Cairn: Monhegan Island Maine, 2002 Monhegan Island rests 11 miles off the coast of Maine and has been an inspiration for artists for generations. Both N.C.Wyeth and Andrew Wyeth, father and son and family made the island famous in their depictions of its wild rugged features. “Wyeth’s’ paintings of Maine are primarily inspired by life on Monhegan Island where both his father and grandfather also lived and worked. Wyeth prefers the winters, not the height of summer when the island is full of palette-toting painters who mostly want to capture nature's quiet scenes.” The forests are full of “fairy houses” that delight children who visit the island. Made of found natural materials, fanciful little houses sit in the hollows of tree roots and along the trails. The children are told that the little homes were made by fairies out of acorn caps, seashells and pine needles. When my daughter was old enough to figure out there was no Santa Claus, she still wanted to believe in the fairies of Monhegan Island. Along the rugged open ocean facing shore, artists build precariously balanced rock sculptures that seem to defy physics. “Cairn” is a name for any rock piles assembled to show a path, denote a monument or landmark. First recorded in 1525–35; earlier carn, from Scots Gaelic: “pile of stones”
Cervidae Deerfield, Massachusetts 1971 I recently visited Santa Fe, New Mexico and the Georgia O’Keefe museum. There are several studies of animal bones and the actual bones she used as subjects on display. My art teacher in 9th grade expected us to paint this Skull, but I decided to turn in a photograph of it. Her comment was, “Great photo, now where’s the painting?” Until recently, I called this image “Equus”, but after a little google research, I realized it was more likely a deer skull. Cervidae is Latin for deer.
Kat Ibiza, Spain Test for Elle Français 1990 I had the good fortune to be a guest at a private compound on the island of Ibiza in August 1990. My patron set me and my team up in our own house replete with full staff, a speed boat and captain with all the requisite water sports toys. We shot hundreds of rolls of film over the course of ten days. Ibiza, set in an archipelago off the coast of Spain in the Med deserves its reputation as both an ancient jewel, and a modern-day destination for free living hedonists from the world over. It is renowned to this day for its non-stop beach parties. This image was inspired by the latter. Shot on Polapan film
Katya Marbella, Spain Votre Beauté Magazine 1989 The best pictures are made when you have all the elements assembled for a job; models, hair and make-up, location, and free time to experiment with new ideas. This image was created during a break in a shoot for a German catalog. It ended up being featured in the French beauty magazine, Votre Beauté, to illustrate an editorial about summer skin care. Katya was a young, Dutch, fresh faced teenaged model whose energy, and humor was a delight. She was like a little sister to me. One of my favorite models in the day. *These few shots in this show were made on Polapan Film. Polapan was a 35mm roll film system from Polaroid that allowed instant film processing. Its velvety grain and rough edges were a delight to work with and was a favorite experimental medium at the time. It was first produced in 1983 but, sadly, like all things Polaroid suffered the same fate as film when Digital came along.
Anne Elise "Marylin" Editorial Story Paris 1989 Actress / Model, Anne Elise, moonlighted as a Marilyn Monroe performance artist. After a fashion shoot, Anne Elise transformed herself into Marilyn and stayed in character as she applied her make-up and donned her Marilyn platinum blonde wig. At one point, my hair and makeup artist attempted to assist, and ‘Marilyn’ shot him down, “Ne me touche pas! Je suis Marilyn!” Shot on Polopan film
Suzy- Quai d'Orleans International Herald Tribune Paris 1985 An Homage to the Iconic International Herald Tribune newspaper. International Herald Tribune was the English Language Newspaper in Paris, a staple of the ex-pat community. Founded originally as the New York Herald in 1887, its France based Paris Herald evolved from its American roots to become the International Herald Tribune. “Ernest Hemingway, author, exile, and Rimbaud-esque enfant terrible, fully understood the life-enhancing, horizon-broadening significance that Paris and its transplanted New York-owned newspaper, the English-language Paris Herald, held for nouveau-riche middle-class Americans.” “In his 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, the first thing the autobiographical hero, Jake Barnes, does on his return to France from Spain is buy the Herald, as the present-day International Herald Tribune was then known, and read it in a cafe with a glass of wine.” It was also famously featured in the Jean Luc Goddard new wave French film “Breathless” with Jean Paul Belmondo and Jean Seburg. I was fortunate to be introduced to, and invited to, the afternoon ‘salon’ of the IHT fashion editor, Hebe Dorsey. “Hebe Dorsey, the fashion editor of The International Herald Tribune was a major figure in the fashion world. Hebe entertained lavishly, both in her large apartment on the Boulevard Malesherbes in Paris and her pied-a-terre on the East Side of Manhattan.” “Walter N. Thayer, chairman of Whitney Communications and president of The Herald Tribune, commented, ''She was a great lady and a wonderful person who had friends in all walks of life.'' An 'Excellent Reporter” Hebe died in December of 1987, two months after a Gala celebrating the 100th anniversary of the paper.
Blondie Whisky a Go Go Sound Check Hollywood, California February 1977 In February of 1977, Debbie Harry and her band “Blondie” appeared for the first time away from the New York City club scene, at the famous Whisky a Go Go on the sunset strip in Los Angeles, California. Prior to this appearance, they had been exclusively playing in NYC and environs at clubs like CBGB and Max’s Kansas City in the nascent punk music scene. This image is from my exclusive private photo shoot, at the rehearsal and sound check before the debut concert. Only the band, photographer Cluett and a few crewmembers and staff were in the room. The concert was so successful that Blondie was booked for many additional nights at the Whisky before moving on to an explosive US and later world tour, including tour dates with Iggy Pop and David Bowie that spring. According to the Blondie official website, the band first headlined with Tom Petty as opening act. Continuing their stand at the Whisky, they later opened for and later headlined with the Ramones in the following weeks. This image is one of one, 2nd edition in this size. Previously an edition of 5, are all now in private collections.
Elle Français Cover Test Marrakech, Morocco 1989 We spent a week in Morocco, mostly in the vicinity of the Atlas Mountains, shooting with found traditional fabrics and adornments. We had a guide who cautioned us to be sensitive to cultural mores and it was for this reason we chose remote locations. In Marrakech, the models were often accosted and derided, even when very conservatively dressed. Short of completely covering up, some men were very unsettled by the western style of our group. In previous travels, as a man, I had never encountered such anger. At that time, the question of girls wearing traditional headwear in French schools was being hotly debated. My photos from that trip were not intended to weigh in on the cultural debate, but as you can imagine, magazines were not comfortable running these pictures shot in a country with strict Islamic traditions.
Neal Smith Alice Cooper Band Drummer Greenwich, Connecticut 1974 Neal was a founding member of the Multi-Platinum Alice Cooper Band and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. I was in a teenaged wannabe rock band in 1971-2. We used this big old Mansion in my hometown of Greenwich, Connecticut as a place to practice and hang out. It was on loan from our guitar player’s uncle Pancho, who let us use it while he looked for a suitable tenant. My band buddies and I lobbied Uncle Pancho to rent it to a rock band. He agreed to let us try to broker a deal with a band. Pancho had connections in the music business and eventually we found that the Alice Cooper Band, hot off its successful “Killer” album, was looking for a house in the New York area. Long story short, the band moved in and of course we were there to greet them. I was about 16 or 17 years old at the time. I became a regular at the house and made friends with the bandmembers and crew. The two guitar players, Glen and Michael, were really into photography too and soon we were shooting and developing films in my darkroom. The Alice Cooper band moved out of the mansion to separate homes in the area, but I have remained friends with them to this day.
Under Neal's Wheels Neal Smith 1974 Neal was a founding member of the Multi-Platinum Alice Cooper Band and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. I was in a teenaged wannabe rock band in 1971-2. We used this big old Mansion in my hometown of Greenwich, Connecticut as a place to practice and hang out. It was on loan from our guitar player’s uncle Pancho, who let us use it while he looked for a suitable tenant. My band buddies and I lobbied Uncle Pancho to rent it to a rock band. He agreed to let us try to broker a deal with a band. Pancho had connections in the music business and eventually we found that the Alice Cooper Band, hot off its successful “Killer” album, was looking for a house in the New York area. Long story short, the band moved in and of course we were there to greet them. I was about 16 or 17 years old at the time. I became a regular at the house and made friends with the bandmembers and crew. The two guitar players, Glen and Michael, were really into photography too and soon we were shooting and developing films in my darkroom. The Alice Cooper band moved out of the mansion to separate homes in the area, but I have remained friends with them to this day.
Pas de Deux Paris, France Ivry Gitlis: Virtuoso Violinist Carolyn Carlson: Prima Ballerina 1988 Ivry was an Israeli virtuoso violinist and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. He performed with the world's top orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Ivry passed away in his beloved Paris Christmas Eve, 2020 at age 98. I had the distinct honor of being invited to accompany Ivry and his entourage during a full day in Paris. Everywhere we went he was fawned over by people of all ages, a true classical music superstar. While sitting at the famous Brasserie Lipp, we were approached by a fan who desired an autograph. Hands of the Maestro is the resulting photo from that moment. The Brasserie Lipp, where Ivry liked to hold court at his favorite table has a long and storied history. In Woody Allen's movie Midnight in Paris, Owen Wilson's character Gil mentions Brasserie Lipp in a passing remark. Featured prominently in Ernest Hemingway's 1964 memoir A Moveable Feast. Carolyn Carlson (born 1943) is an American born French nationalized contemporary dance choreographer, performer, and poet. She is of Finnish descent. She is the director of the Centre Chorégraphique National in Roubaix and of the Atelier de Paris at La Cartoucherie de Vincennes in Paris. She was awarded the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic.
Hands of the Maestro Ivry Gitlis- Brasserie Lipp Paris 1988 Ivry was an Israeli virtuoso violinist and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. He performed with the world's top orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Ivry passed away in his beloved Paris Christmas Eve, 2020 at age 98. I had the distinct honor of being invited to accompany Ivry and his entourage during a full day in Paris. Later, he joined his friend American Prima Ballerina, Carolyn Carlson to perform an impromptu “Pas de Deux” improvisation at a nearby theater. This photo records an exact moment as it is captured on the negative, with no photoshop. The Brasserie Lipp, where Ivry liked to hold court at his favorite table has a long and storied history.
Morning Roundup Eaton Brothers Ranch Wolf, Wyoming 1998 Established in 1879, this stunning 8000-acre ranch is nestled in the slopes of the Big Horn Mountains and stretches out into the prairie in northeastern Wyoming. Every summer morning as many as 300+ horses are rounded up from the slopes of the Big Horn Mountains and funneled down into a corral on the ranch. Every evening they are released back into the mountain pastures to graze. My family have visited the ranch for 4 generations. One of the early guests of the ranch, Theodore Roosevelt would come to pack into the mountains on hunting and fishing expeditions and counted the Eaton Brothers as good friends.
