william claxton dead at 80
Written on October 13, 2008
sorry bout the lateness of this post.
i was very sad to hear today that
william claxton died over the weekend of congestive heart failure. he was eighty years old. claxton took one of my favorite photos of all time (above), of chet baker and helima in 1955. i’ve always loved this picture, have seen it in galleries from time to time, and it’s the only photo i have ever seriously considered purchasing. every time, though, i made some excuse not to do it. when i first fell in love with the picture over a decade ago, i think it was $1500. at the time i was just unable to do it. hell, i couldn’t even afford to have a photo framed, let alone blow fifteen hundred bucks on one. i saw it again recently, not six months ago, and the price had shot up to around ten grand. i was kicking myself then for not getting it at $1500.
i’ve actually met claxton on two separate occasions. the first time was at a jon brion show at cafe largo on fairfax. i was sitting with marvin etzioni and some guy who looked kind of like colonel sanders came over to say hello and marvin introduced me. it was loud in the club and i couldn’t hear a word anyone said, so i just smiled and shook his hand. later on i realized it was william claxton.
the second time was at an american heart association fundraiser at UCLA. claxton was there and this time i got to talk to him for a few minutes. he had an implanted defibrillator and he told me about how it scared the hell out of his assistants. apparently the defib went off one day when he was helping them move cases around, and after that they wouldn’t let him lift anything heavy. he seemed to find it all funny. he was warm and personable, and i was really glad to meet him officially even though i’m sure he’d never remember it.
i remember, also, living in echo park and seeing claxton’s photo of art pepper from 1956. pepper was standing on a steep hill that cratered and went back up in the distance. i have no direct confirmation of this, but i’m pretty sure that was baxter street, right around the corner from the bungalow where i lived, and i felt good driving up and down that street everyday, knowing a piece of photographic and jazz history took place there.
in the 60s claxton really defined the visual look of west coast cool jazz. his pictures of chet baker not only made claxton famous, i think they made chet even bigger than he could’ve become otherwise. claxton’s photos were always flooded with window light and felt soft and vulnerable and cool. he even made steve mcqueen look vulnerable sometimes, and that must’ve taken some doing.
via La Times.
Art Pepper while kicking a major heroin habit poses on Baxter st (the steepest st. in Los Angeles/ Echo Park) for his fantastic book
"Straight Life".
william claxton dead at 80
Written on October 13, 2008
sorry bout the lateness of this post.
i was very sad to hear today that william claxton died over the weekend of congestive heart failure. he was eighty years old. claxton took one of my favorite photos of all time (above), of chet baker and helima in 1955. i’ve always loved this picture, have seen it in galleries from time to time, and it’s the only photo i have ever seriously considered purchasing. every time, though, i made some excuse not to do it. when i first fell in love with the picture over a decade ago, i think it was $1500. at the time i was just unable to do it. hell, i couldn’t even afford to have a photo framed, let alone blow fifteen hundred bucks on one. i saw it again recently, not six months ago, and the price had shot up to around ten grand. i was kicking myself then for not getting it at $1500.
i’ve actually met claxton on two separate occasions. the first time was at a jon brion show at cafe largo on fairfax. i was sitting with marvin etzioni and some guy who looked kind of like colonel sanders came over to say hello and marvin introduced me. it was loud in the club and i couldn’t hear a word anyone said, so i just smiled and shook his hand. later on i realized it was william claxton.
the second time was at an american heart association fundraiser at UCLA. claxton was there and this time i got to talk to him for a few minutes. he had an implanted defibrillator and he told me about how it scared the hell out of his assistants. apparently the defib went off one day when he was helping them move cases around, and after that they wouldn’t let him lift anything heavy. he seemed to find it all funny. he was warm and personable, and i was really glad to meet him officially even though i’m sure he’d never remember it.
i remember, also, living in echo park and seeing claxton’s photo of art pepper from 1956. pepper was standing on a steep hill that cratered and went back up in the distance. i have no direct confirmation of this, but i’m pretty sure that was baxter street, right around the corner from the bungalow where i lived, and i felt good driving up and down that street everyday, knowing a piece of photographic and jazz history took place there.
in the 60s claxton really defined the visual look of west coast cool jazz. his pictures of chet baker not only made claxton famous, i think they made chet even bigger than he could’ve become otherwise. claxton’s photos were always flooded with window light and felt soft and vulnerable and cool. he even made steve mcqueen look vulnerable sometimes, and that must’ve taken some doing.
via La Times.
Art Pepper while kicking a major heroin habit poses on Baxter st (the steepest st. in Los Angeles/ Echo Park) for his fantastic book "Straight Life".
