2005, "Bruce Weber," Routledge

For The 20th Century Encyclopedia of Photography, 2006

Bruce Weber is best known for signature black and white photographs of young men and women. More than his peers Terry Richardson, Richard Kern or Larry Clark, Weber elevates the grandeur of young subjects for commercial photography. His work has attained widespread familiarity through the campaigns of Ralph Lauren, Gianni Versace, Calvin Klein and Abercrombie and Fitch, among others. He has also received numerous honors for his book and film projects, including a nomination from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Weber was born and raised in Pennsylvania. He trained in photography and film in New York City. He was influenced by photographer Diane Arbus, who he met on several occasions, and he posed for photographer Richard Avedon. By the mid 1970's, Weber had established a reputation for black and white photographs of nude males and for portraits of individuals in the music industry. He was also exhibiting his work as art photography with several major galleries. Weber's exhibitions led to the interest of Calvin Klein who employed him in the 1980's as his primary photographer for clothing and fragrance. The Calvin Klein advertisements that Weber produced were successful in the market and influential in the industry but highly controversial. His photographs of young men in underwear were released at the same time as a debate over the homoerotic photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe. Despite the controversy, Weber continued for Klein and went on to produce the significant mid 1990's Eternity fragrance advertorial and television campaign with Christy Turlington with husband Edward Burns.

Almost every major publication such as Vogue, V, W, Vanity Fair, Interview and Rolling Stone, has employed Weber for editorials and portraits of figures from Patti Smith to Robert de Niro. The portraits are some of the most intimate reflections of how seemingly untouchable figures appear relaxed, inside their own homes or within natural settings. Weber prefers going into the lives of his subjects for authentic backgrounds and locations. Perhaps one of the reasons that Weber's photography was so prominent in the 1990's was his interest in the real life settings. The style matched the increase in lifestyle marketing.

Weber's work has a seemingly authentic, casual realism. Bruce Davidson's straightforward shots of anonymous people at home are perhaps the closest parallel except that Weber's subjects are rarely posing. Weber gives his subjects a sort of ultimate freedom of movement and then captures them in action. In addition to his subjects' private homes, he shoots frequently at his own homes in the Adirondacks, Miami and Montana. He is known for his photos of groups, typically many young people involved in recreation and nostalgic athletics such as fencing, lacrosse and longboard surfing. Weber often focuses in on one couple in a group, documenting what appears to be a private exchange. In this way, he advances both the lifestyle and a romantic fantasies in the fictional narrative of fashion photography.

Weber is in many ways a leader of the ongoing American fashion story. He sells each time, for different brands and publications, the same story of spirited outdoor leisure and romance. In this way, Weber affirms the American dream and the promotion of the leisure class but he also differentiates himself from his contemporaries Richardson or Clark. Weber's world is just a bit more naïve and traditional. Examples of this subtle difference are perhaps best seen in Weber's work Roadside America, for which he drove cross-country with a group of young models. Weber also occasionally includes photographs of his golden retrievers within the shoots and has made books on the subject. Other books include Branded Youth and the All American series with title such as Is Love Enough? Weber's films are perhaps the darkest part of his work. In Let's Get Lost, Weber focuses on the struggle of a young male protagonist in short dramatic feature. Weber has also directed music videos for Chris Isaak and the Pet Shop Boys.