Bob Willoughby: Mr. Hollywoodland
Bob Willoughby Frank Sinatra on the set of “The Man With The Golden Arm” 1955 © Bob Willoughby
Popular Photography magazine once called Bob Willoughby "the man who virtually invented the photojournalistic motion picture still." Now, the exhibition “Vintage Hollywood” at Stephen Bulger Gallery presents his vintage prints from 50s, 60s and 70s—Willoughby’s professional heyday working on film sets for The Graduate, Rosemary's Baby, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and other iconic films. Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift and Audrey Hepburn are among the many faces that have since brought his work into collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, and the National Portrait Gallery in London. Willoughby’s technical achievements are less famous than his subjects, though no less worthy of attention: he invented a genre by being the first “outside” photographer to shoot on closed film sets, and he made his name by devising innovations, including use of radio-controlled cameras, to sync his still camera with the motion picture one. (1026 Queen St W, Toronto ON)
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Bob Willoughby Montgomery Clift waiting to film “Raintree County” 1956 © Bob Willoughby |
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Bob Willoughby Dustin Hoffman & Ann Bancroft, “The Graduate” 1967 © Bob Willoughby |
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