David Hockney
The Photography of Michael Childers
by Steve Desroches
Michael Childers knows he’s been at the right place at the right time, many times. And he believes in luck. But being lucky only matters when you are ready. As they say, luck is when preparation meets opportunity.
A photographer since his father gave him a camera at age 14, when Childers moved to Southern California in 1962 to study art and photography at UCLA he recognized that the glamour and glitter of Hollywood was where he needed to be. To support himself as a student he began taking photos of friends and up-and-coming actors and musicians. And then he was introduced to some of the major stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood like Agnes Moorehead, Rosalind Russell, and Norma Shearer. Then came a stroke of luck. He landed a gig to photograph his favorite movie star, Natalie Wood, who at the time was at the height of her fame. That portrait has since become iconic, and in real time gave the young photographer’s burgeoning career a major shot of adrenaline that would last for over 60 years. Now a legend of celebrity portraiture, Childers would go on to shoot more than 200 magazine covers for everyone from Vogue, Esquire, GQ, Life, to the very first issue of Vanity Fair. Childers developed not only an eye to become a master in the art of a magazine shoot, but also a pioneer in making it a collaborative artistic process.
“It needs to be something that grabs your attention from 25 feet away over all that’s between someone at the checkout at the supermarket or as they pass a newsstand on the sidewalk,” says Childers. “You used to work with talent, not AI. You work with people and ideas. That’s how you create something worth remembering.”
With an enormous body of work, having created some of the most iconic images of the top actors, musicians, models, and artists of the modern era, a major exhibition of some of that work is coming to Provincetown for a show at the Greg Salvatori Gallery that will be up for the rest of July. For his entire adult life Childers has been at the forefront of the intersections of fine art photography, portraiture, celebrity culture, and the realm of the print magazine in its glory days. And without waxing too nostalgic, because as they say nostalgia is reality’s drunk cousin, he does pine for the days of a more intellectual and genteel media landscape when it comes to celebrity. “Well, it’s become TMZ, gossip, Instagram, Tik Tok, and so on,” says Childers. “It’s become really about attacking celebrities and sometimes a little hateful towards celebrities, which I don’t like.”
The relational aspect of Childers’ process is evident in the intimacy of his work. There’s an ease to his subjects that translates through the trust in their eyes and relaxed poses. They knew Childers wanted them to look their best and wasn’t trying to make fools of them or catch them in a gotcha moment like the modern-day paparazzi.
Childers’ work was so impressive and his reputation sterling that he not only had dibs on the top stars of the day for magazine cover shoots or his photography in general, but that celebrities asked for him by name, which led to young actors seeking him out as well, which he saw as opportunities rather than pesky requests from struggling artists. As such, he can say he knew them when as he shot hundreds before they hit it big, including Patti LuPone, Sissy Spacek, Susan Sarandon, and Demi Moore. And when they achieved fame, they remained loyal to him and spread the world throughout Hollywood as well as New York City and London.
Childers speaks of each shoot with fondness of a warm memory, and he talks about the magazines for which he worked like they are his children; he’s proud of their individual and unique characteristics. It often seems the current media landscape is this digital abyss, uniform in its design and delivered via a screen more ephemeral than their print predecessors. Each magazine was unique in its culture, look, and vibe. They were institutions unto themselves, and obviously some still exist and thrive (if you’re reading this in print, you’re holding one).
Of all the magazines he worked for he has deep affection for After Dark. Published between 1968 and 1983, After Dark was an entertainment magazine that also intentionally reached out to gay readers and ran a landmark cover story about Provincetown in July of 1979.
“I loved that sweet magazine,” says Childers. “For the times it was the first place to get gay information. But they also covered ballet, Broadway, music. They found new talents before they were famous, like Bernadette Peters, Bette Midler. So, you could safely buy that magazine for the coverage of gay news, but to those that didn’t know, they thought you were buying an arts magazine. I did about 40 covers for them. I loved it.”
After Dark had a wide readership and heavy cultural influence enough to catch the eye of Andy Warhol, who was always looking for new talent for his magazine, Interview. And Warhol loved Childers work for a long time, but had become transfixed by a photo Childers took of Bernadette Peters around the time she was starring in Pennies From Heaven with Steve Martin. Warhol grabbed Childers by the elbow at a party to talk shop.
“Andy said to me, ‘I want beautiful people and I want rich people. And if they are beautiful and rich I’ll give you even more space,’” says Childers. “That’s how I ended up working for Interview. Andy loved the rich, famous, and beautiful. He worshipped them.”
The Legend and the Stars: Michael Childers’ Six Decades of Photographic Intimacy and Seduction is on exhibition at the Greg Salvatori Gallery, 366 Commercial St. July 17 through July 31. An opening reception is planned for Friday, July 17 starting at 7 p.m. For more information visit gregsalvatori.com or call 347.399.0875. Childers will be in conversation with James Gavin on Monday, July 20 at 12:30 p.m. at the Fine Arts Work Center, 24 Pearl St. The event if free. For more information visit fawc.org or call 508.487.9960.
