Gary James' Interview With Photographer
Timothy White



He is one of the most famous and respected photographer in the world. He's photographed people like Keith Richards and Eric Clapton. Bruce Springsteen and Aretha Franklin have used his photos on their album covers. The gentleman we are talking about is Mr. Timothy White.

Q - When you graduated from the Rhode Island School Of Design you moved to New York City, didn't you?

A - Yes.

Q - Would there have been more famous musicians to photograph in New York than Los Angeles at the time? Did that enter into your decision?

A - Well, you're making it like I had it together right out of college. (laughs) I went to New York City 'cause it was the center of the universe. I grew up in New Jersey, Fort Lee, which was just on the other side of the George Washington Bridge. So it just made sense. It was just where it was happening as far as I was concerned. I rented a loft with two other friends who were also photographers. It was a sweat shop. We did all the work ourselves. We dumpster dived and found whatever we could to completely renovate this place, this huge studio that these three nobody photographers had. It was a really great place, but we didn't know what we were doing. I would do anything from portraits to real estate photos to whatever it took to make a living, and bicycle around Manhattan and try to get a real job for magazines and try to build a photo career with as much hutzpah as I could possible muster. I connected with some artists that I had known through some other people. One in particular was from Venezuela and he was a painter and we got to be friendly. He introduced me to a lot of his peers who were a lot of South American artists, Central American and South American artists who happened to be living in New York. Sort of ex-patriots, and I got involved in their world and started working on an art project in Venezuela that invited me to participate in and sort of document. I saw it as a great opportunity, not only to travel, but to get great pictures. I graduated art school and I didn't see myself doing a lot of commercial work, although the reality is you have to survive and pay your rent and this was an opportunity maybe to do something different and changing my life in some ways by experiencing South America. To make a long story short, what that did was sort of get me into this travel bug and I started doing all this work, although I was working for magazines and working for him, trying to document his project. I was also shooting personal work as I was sort of training in art school. What I was kind of doing was working on my own photography. I realized over a few years of doing that, that it really wasn't what I wanted to do. I didn't want to be a travel photographer or a photo journalist or anything like that. I took that work, those portraits that I had shot traveling through South America and a few other places, and took it to Rolling Stone and they hired me right away based on that work. And that sort of changed my life. I tried to do almost anything and was just pushing myself, opening up doors and being an opportunist and finally went to where I belonged, in music.

Q - In the beginning you didn't want to just photograph musicians, did you? You wanted to photograph actors as well?

A - Well, it started more with music at first. This is where I belonged. It sort of hit me because it was something I was always involved in my whole life. I was a drummer since I was a kid. I used to read Circus magazine. I was listening to music in my room. I was a young Hippie in '69, '70, '71. I had grown up with older sisters who were into The Beatles, so I had a young background in music. That's really where my mindset was. In order to get somewhere you need to know where it is first and then you find the path there. It wasn't until I really realized that, wow! There was this opportunity to use my photography in what I was interested in, to work in music and entertainment. That's when it kind of clicked for me. So, it was an A-ha moment for me. When Rolling Stone saw something in my work to hire me right away, it was great in that it led me to going out to music magazines and guitar magazines. Things of that nature. Starting off small and then getting album covers and then one thing led to another and I ended up getting a cover contract with Rolling Stone and seeing things had changed in Hollywood, Rolling Stone didn't just have musicians on the cover anymore. It was actors as well. It was Tom Cruise on the cover. It was different people and I saw that as my opportunity to expand into entertainment and I ended up getting on a plane and coming to Los Angeles by myself, not knowing what I was doing, and knocked on doors and getting opportunities. Then it just clicked for me. I ended up switching in a way from music to Hollywood, even though I still did music work. I wasn't just a music photographer. I was more involved in entertainment in general. I ended up doing bigger names musicians rather than every little job. It all sort of played into this raising my profile and working with the biggest name actors as well as the biggest name musicians.

Q - You photographed Keith Richards. What was he like? Was he a co-operative subject? Were you taking photos of him while he was onstage? You're a portrait guy, right?

A - Yes. I'm much more thought out, contrived in a way in terms of lighting and things of that nature. It was more of a portrait than live. It was never my thing. In part it was why I moved away from music in some ways. It wasn't like late nights in smoky rooms and trying to grab something. Instead it was I was being hired as a portraitist to go in and try to figure something out. Keith was an amazing experience because he was Keith Richards, but was very loose. It was like, okay, let's meet at this bar in Tribeca and we'll start there and do some things. I scouted up the location and got them to let me come in late one afternoon before the bar was open and full of people. We started doing some pictures and having a drink and playing some pool. We were on the West side of lower Manhattan, Tribeca. And so we were a short walk to the river and I said, "The lights are getting gray. It's almost that magical hour. Let's take a walk and go to a river and do some things outside." He said, "Sure." So it was me and my two assistants and we're carrying equipment, cameras, lights, and start walking west toward the river a couple of blocks. We're walking down the street and all of a sudden this New York City police car pulls up and screeches to a halt 'cause they thought it was Keith Richards, and jumped out and said, "Would you sign my violation book and give me your autograph?" And he was like, "Yeah, cool." There were a couple of cops and he was having this moment where he was having fun with it and they were having fun. All of a sudden another police car shows up and these people come out and they all want his autograph. I'm like, "Okay guys, I'm racing the light. We've got to go. We've got to walk down the block." This female cop said, "Too bad 'cause I happen to be wearing a Rolling Stones t-shirt underneath my uniform and I was hoping maybe Keith would sign it." I go, "Okay. Hold on." She undoes her blouse and underneath is her bullet proof vest, which she opened up, and behind it is the Rolling Stones t-shirt. I've got this great picture of Keith signing on her chest with a Sharpie on a Rolling Stones t-shirt. Then he was like, "Okay. Got to go. Thanks guys." We started walking down the block and he turns to me and says. "I could run for mayor of this town," or something to that effect. It was funny, their response to him.

Q - Did you also photograph Playboy centerfolds?

A - Well, I started to do a bunch of fashion work work for Playboy, not being a fashion photographer, but loving the idea of working for Playboy because at the time this magazine had changed and become a little more mainstream certainly in terms of entertainment, in terms of great opportunities for pictures. Nice, big, glossy lay-outs and access to big stars. That's sort of how and why I wanted to get in, but I ended up getting to work more on these fashion stories which was creative for me in a different kind of thing. Sexy. You could do what you wanted to do. They could be smoking cigarettes. They could be drinking in the pictures. Things you couldn't do in other magazines and that was a great opportunity for me. Then they asked me to do a cover, a centerfold, a major story spread. I did twelve pages and a cover on the model Carol Alt, who was turning 48-years-old. They wanted to do this story and they thought it was great. That was a pretty great experience. We spent five days on a private island down in Key West, just running around naked, doing pictures of her for a week. Just really kind of a fun experience. It wasn't my thing. It was a one-off. My thing had become Hollywood and big names in music at that point.

Q - You also shot photos for Hollywood studios used on movie posters. That's a separate skill from what you were doing, wasn't it?

A - Yeah. Absolutely. I've done hundreds of movie posters, many of which you know from Home Alone, to Losers to Sleepless In Seattle to Mr. And Mrs. Smith to Ocean's 13 and on and on. It really clicked for me early on. Maybe it was my Jersey attitude. I didn't know what it was. I wasn't intimidated by the process. The process was somewhat intimidating initially because you're working on a big, important movie set with 200 people running around, collaborating to make this production happen. You're working with big stars. You're working with directors. You're working with a producer. You're working with an advertising agency. You're working with the movie studio. The money was really good. I was able to handle the production, whatever was necessary, however much equipment I needed, whatever I needed to produce the work for them is what I got and that was a whole other set of circumstances. Even my peers in other avenues of advertising, in product advertising, every nickel had to be accounted for and budgeted and produced, where in Hollywood it's a similar thing, it's advertising work, but you've got people who are doted after and treated with a certain sense of importance that they allowed me to do whatever was necessary. If I had to blow up a car for a shoot, go buy a car, hire a special effects guy and blow it up for the picture 'cause that's the picture we need to get. So, it allowed for a freedom and bigger budgets and excitement. I felt like I was a director myself on each photo shoot 'cause they were these small, big productions if you will. And I was more a psychologist than a photographer. It was about being able to handle the talent, getting them to like you, getting them to give you the time and the access that they didn't necessarily want to do 'cause they saw themselves as actors in front of the camera. The still camera was a different thing. It scrutinized in a different way. It was advertising, marketing and publicity for a movie that often times they didn't feel they wanted to do. So, I think my strength was being efficient with their time, being creative, being a psychologist, being able to deal with the talent, but also being able to come through for the advertising agency who needed lots of material because the poster started to be put together through computer generation, pieces of things. So, it was pleasing the talent, making them happy and feeling like I was cool, that I was efficient with their time, that I got it. I wasn't just using them. I was in some way collaborating with them, getting the pieces for the movie studio that they needed to produce it and through the advertising agency who really worked on all these pieces. So, I figured out early that I was good at it and I knew how to get something for everybody, including myself, and it just grew.

Q - You then went on to direct music videos and TV commercials. Would I have seen one of your videos?

A - Possibly. I didn't do a lot of them. Shania Twain. I did a bunch of Country stuff. Clint Black I remember. I've got to think about that. It was the early '90s for me.

Q - You didn't direct Keith Richards or The Rolling Stones.

A - No. I wish I had, but no.

Q - So that brings us up to these days. What occupies your time? You have quite a catalog or portfolio of photos. Do you sell prints at museums or galleries?

A - Well, I do, a big part of my work. I still shoot. I still do Celebrity. I still do movie ads. I still do product advertising. I've also executive produced a number of television shows and am involved in one right how. Also, I'm a part owner of a gallery called The Morrison Hotel Gallery. We've had one in New York for seventeen years. In L.A. we opened one six years ago (2012) and one gallery in Maui opened three years ago. (2015) So, I'm very involved in monetizing my archives in many different ways. I just partnered with some businessmen out of Singapore and created a new entity and brought in some investment money to ramp up and monetize my archive and so we're doing merchandising, licensing, as well as print sales and publishing. So it's sort of doing everything I've done along the way, only I've ramped it up with this investment. It's a whole other entity. I'm sort of starting over in so many ways, in a fun way. What I did when I was in my 30s, 40s, was having these buildings and studios in New York City and having this big career and doing all this stuff, traveling around, and here I am at 62 doing it all over again. But it's fun. It's an exciting time.

Official Website: www.TimothyWhite.com

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