Bob Willoughby

Robert Hanley "Bob" Willoughby (June 30, 1927 – 18 December 2009) was an American photographer. Popular Photography called him "The man who virtually invented the photojournalistic motion picture still."^[1]

Early life and education

Willoughby was born in Los Angeles, California. He pursued photography after receiving a camera as a gift on his 12th birthday. Willoughby studied photography at the film school at the University of Southern California and worked under graphic designer Saul Bass at the Kahn Institute of Art.^[2]

Photojournalism

Between 1948 and 1954, Willoughby's exhibitions of photographs of jazz musicians and dancers^[3] led to a contract with Globe Photos, and one, of a screaming female audience, was selected by Edward Steichen for The Family of Man exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art which toured the world to be seen by 9 million visitors.^[4][5][6] Later, he worked for Harper's Bazaar magazine where his photographs illustrated arts and culture articles.

Movie stills photographer

Willoughby's big break came when he was assigned by six magazines to photograph

Much of Willoughby's popularity stemmed from his ability to capture film stars in unguarded moments. Director Sydney Pollack said in the introduction to Bob's autobiography: "Sometimes a filmmaker gets a look at a photograph taken on his own set and sees the 'soul' of his film in one still photograph. It's rare, but it happens. It happened to me in 1969, the first time I looked at the work of Bob Willoughby during the filming of They Shoot Horses, Don't They?".^[8]

In 1963, Willoughby built the first remote radio-controlled camera for on-set still photography.^{[citation needed]} This led to other innovations that enabled him to take still photographs identical to the film footage. Much of his best work revolved around stars like Audrey Hepburn, Frank Sinatra and Elizabeth Taylor.

Later life

Willoughby continued to photograph for the rest of his life. He lived in Ireland for 17 years where he used his photographic skills to illustrate ancient Irish poetry text with photographs of the countryside. In addition, he authored books on photography and other subjects. He lived his last years in Vence, France, where he continued a very active professional life. He died of cancer on 18 December 2009.^[9] Willoughby's images are represented by the Motion Picture and Television Photo Archive and can be viewed by the public at mptvimages.com [1]

Collections

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His photographs are held in collections and exhibited worldwide including:

• Museum of Modern Art, New York
• The
  London, England^[10]
• The
  National Media Museum, Bradford
  , UK
• The
  Paris, France
• Musee de la Photographie, Charleroi, Belgium

Publications

• Willoughby, Bob; Schickel, Richard (1974). The platinum years. New York: Random House.
  OCLC 841748
  .
• Willoughby, Bob (1981). Voices from ancient Ireland : a book of early Irish poetry. London: Pan Books.
  OCLC 8413924
  .
• Willoughby, Bob; Freeman, Russ (1990). Jazz in LA (in German). Kiel: Nieswand.
  OCLC 28543274
  .
• Willoughby, Bob (1993). Audrey Hepburn : photo-documents. Tokyo: Pacific Press Service, Toky.
  OCLC 801202624
  .
• Willoughby, Bob (2001). Hollywood : a journey through the stars ; a photographic autobiography. New York: Assouline.
  OCLC 48496177
  .
• Willoughby, Bob (2002). Audrey : an intimate collection. London: Vision On.
  OCLC 48835752
  .
• Willoughby, Bob (2002). Sinatra, an intimate collection. London: Vision On.
  OCLC 51464964
  .
• The Star Makers: On Set With Hollywood's Greatest Directors (2003)
• Liz an Intimate Collection: Photographs of Elizabeth Taylor (2004)
• Audrey Hepburn: Photographs 1953-1966 (2010)
• Bob Willoughby: A Cinematic Life (2022)