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The Titanic set was almost deserted. The giganitc tank, where dozens of extras had floated in eerie silence during previous scenes, was now occupied by only five people -- actors Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, two cameramen and photographer Douglas Kirkland.
Kirkland stood in waist-high water, watching the Titanic stars through the lens of his camera. His equipment was hooked up to a blimp, a photographic tool that mutes the camera's clicking noises so it won't distrub filming. Six feet away, Winslet lay unmoving on a large piece of debris, supposedly from the sunken ship, and DiCaprio held her hand as he floated in the water.
On the movie screen, tearful audiences would watch Rose DeWitt Bukater cling to her lover, Jack Dawson, after the doomed ship had vanished below the ocean's surface. Bodies float around them in what became a watery cemetery for hundreds of unlucky, lower-class passengers of the "unsinkable ship."
While the cameras roll, the actors float in a 90-foot square tank in Rosarito Beach, Mexico. The water is comforably warm, unlike the icy waters that claimed so many lives. But to Kirkland, the scene was no less dramatic that its final screen version.
Kirkland has shot still photographs on the sets of more than 100 movies. His photos have appeared in magazines and books worldwide. After 30 yeras as a photographer, he has met people and visited places most Americans only dream about. But at that moment, watching painful emotions flicker across Winslet's face, the veteran was staggered by the authenticity.
"As I looked through the camera, it looked like a real death," he says. "I thought to myself, this is how any woman would be if someone important to her -- a husband, brother, lover -- was taken. It took me a long time to come down off that."
Two photos from that memorable scene appear in Kirkland's newest book, James Cameron's Titanic, which is sitting pretty as the No. 1 nonfiction paperback book on The New York Times Bestseller List. The book's success stunned Kirkland, but it reprsents only a small portion of his portfolio. He worked as a staff photographer for Look and Life magazines during the '60s and '70s, an era when magazines were a media powerhouse. His movie credits include 2001, True Lies and The Sound of Music. He published three additional books at the end of last year and has participated in almost every Day in the Life photo project.
With so much experience, it's fortunate that Kirkland loves his job. He believes he is one of the luckiest people alive, a man who, despite his small-town origins, achieved success and happiness in a profession that has fascinated him for half a century.
"If you really have the desire, and your passion runs deep, you can go through almost anything," he says. "It is the true American Dream."
The year was 1957. Dwight Eisenhower sat in the Oval Office. Bridge on the River Kwai won seven Oscars. And Kirkland, a self-described "22-year-old with a 15-year-old mentality," drove into New York City, his head full of hope and ambition. He was to interview with Irving Penn, a Vogue photographer, for a job as his assistant. It was a huge step for the young man from a town outside Toronto, Canada, population 7,000, where he photographed hocky games and weddings for a local studio.
Culture shock hit Kirkland with the force of a sledgehammer. Everything was bigger in New York. A bottle of Coke, which cost 5 cents at home, cost 25 cents in the city. But while the price of a hot dog soared with the skyscrapers, so did career opportunities. Kirkland was young, confident and fearless; he knew he had found the Promised Land.
He worked as Penn's assistant for four months. After gaining that experience, Kirkland held several other assistant positions and later shot freelance photography for a year. He made his first career breakthrough when he landed a position as a staff photographer for Look, one of the most popular magazines in the United States.
At the time, one in five Americans read Look magazine; Kirkland says only CNN might rival its importance today. The magazine became his training ground, where he truly began to learn the trade. He stayed there until it shut down 11 years later.
In 1961, he got his second big break: a photo shoot with Elizabeth Taylor. Until that point, Kirkland had photographed businessmen and fashion spreads, not the type of assignments that jump-start a career. He was on one such assignment in California, photographing bathing suits, when Look's Hollywood editor, Jack Hamilton, set up an interview with Taylor -- no photographers allowed. Kirkland's New York boss promptly shipped him out to Las Vegas. He sat quietly and attentively until Hamilton exhausted his questions, then looked Taylor straight in the eye and asked for a photo session.
"I said, 'Can you imagine what it would mean to me if you gave me an opportunity to photograph you? I'm just beginning,'" he says. "The notion appealed to her. She had not been photographed for some time because she had been ill, so I got a big scoop. It lit my career on fire."
Kirkland's profile of Taylor ran on Look's cover and in magazines worldwide. Because the public's appetite for Taylor was insatiable, and Kirkland had achieved the impossible photo shoot with her, his name gained recognition almost overnight. After that, he got higher-profile assignments, including more celebrities. He photographed Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe. Krikland says the Monroe shot, in which she stretches seductively across a bed covered in white silk sheets, is probably his most famous shot.
Despite the public's fascination with Hollywood, movie stars are not always the most interesting subjects, Kirkland says. Divorce lawyers and scientists hold just as much allure. Kirkland says one of his most memorable assignments was photographing the late Benjamin Spock, the author and baby doctor. He couldn't convince Spock's protective wife to allow him to photograph the doctor in a studio, so the session took place in a hotel room in Pasadena, Calif. Kirkland brought a friend's newborn with him, set the child in Spock's arms and photographed the doctor playing with the baby.
"It was perfect," Kirkland says. "It would be a pretty dull portrait without a baby. I made a shoot that was supposed to be nothing into something."
Kirkland freelanced for science magazines and did a lot of travel photography during the '80s. He participated in 11 Day in the Life projects, with locations that included Australia, the United States and China. In these projects, the best photographers worldwide shoot photos for one day, and the results are published in giant, full-color hardcovers.
Throughout the decades, Kirkland has tried to adapt his photography to the country's changing tastes because he doesn't want his photos to look like yesterday's style. He says keeping his work fresh and innovative is one of the most challenging and enjoyable parts of his job.
Kirkland's most recent works include four books -- ICONS, Legends, Waza Africa and Body Stories -- that were his pet projects. He recently completed Body Stories, a collection of nudes he worked on for four years, and is now between projects. He says he takes six to eight months to think about his next book topic because each one is a major time committment. In the meantime, he was busy with Titanic.
Kirkland was involved with the Titanic project from day one. He assisted in the development of the book's concept and read Cameron's script before setting foot on the set. He helped choose the photos that were finally published, and he also thought of the book's title.
While Titanic was in production from July 1996 through March 1997, Kirkland spent a total of 45 days on sets in Nova Scotia, Mexico and Los Angeles. His time on previous movie sets averaged from 10 to 14 days, but because he was shooting for a book, he gave Titanic more time. He photographed the daily events of production, trying to record and observe like a photojournalist. He reflected the Titanic story through his photos.
"I try to keep the innocence and surprise as much as I can because I know pople want to see the movie sets," he says. "It's quite exciting because you're recording a piece of history."
His book chornicles the making of the movie from dives to the actual ship's wreckage to the creation of digitally enhanced special effects. He illustrates the painstaking reconstruction of the ship and the period costumes, as well as the interaction between cast members during fun and work. Everything is recorded in this book, and the American public loves every page. James Cameron's Titanic has spent eight weeks at No. 1 on The New York Times Bestseller List for nonfiction paperbacks, the first picture book ever to accomplish that feat. For Kirkland, the book's stunning success is immensely satisfying.
"I couldn't believe it. I never thought it could happen," he says. "It made me think all the choice we made were the right ones."
The movie's unheard-of box-office intake also surprised Kirkland. He says even after spending time on countless movie sets, he still can't predict a movie's success, but he can almost always tell when things so wrong. He didn't get that feeling on Titanic.
Kirkland was confident Titanic would do well, despite daunting reports of the movie's $200 million budget and critics' predictions of doom. When Cameron's movie went from a Hollywood joke to America's darling, Kirkland felt relief. He attributed much of that success to what he calls the "Leo factor," or thousands of love-struck teen-age girls mooning over DiCaprio's blue eyes.
When Kirkland saw DiCaprio for the first time on the Titanic set, he thought the young actor looked like an angel. He struggled to fit DiCaprio into the role of Jack, whom he visualized as a few years older, and failed. Kirkland later decided he had misjudged DiCaprio after watching his work on the set.
Kirkland says Winslet is even more flexible than her co-star. He calls her a good, traditional English actress. "She could do anything from Shakespeare to something completely out of her element."
What's next for Kirkland? He plans to continue photographing for magazines, book companies and film studios. There's probably another major project in the near future, although he doesn't know its subject yet. At age 63, Kirkland doesn't see retirement as an option. He says he is young for his age, and as long as he continues to adapt his style to the public's changing tastes, he will stay on top.
He says his road to success would be more difficult to travel for today's aspiring photographers because the industry has changed. Few magazines employ staff photographers because freelancers now take most of the assignments. But the principles behind his success remain the same. He says he has lived the American Dream, and he wouldn't be satisfied doing anything else.
"When I get up in the morning, I am excited about the day's assigments. I'll be one of those people who died with his boots on."
This article was published in Weekend magazine, based in Columbia, Mo., on March 19, 1998.
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Posted October 6, 1998