Rangefinder Magazine
January 2005

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Profile: Jeff Dunas by Peter Skinner
From the Blues to Streets Around the World

When the definitive history of blues music is compiled, it’s a pretty good bet the images of prolific Los Angeles-based editorial and fine art shooter Jeff Dunas will feature prominently. That, however, could also be said of various other subjects upon which Dunas has focused his discerning eye, remarkable talent and boundless energy for over 30 years. During that period he has created thousands of images for a wide range of commercial clients, photographed a veritable who’s who of celebrities, published numerous books, and initiated a variety of ongoing series of personal projects, ranging from flea markets and street pictures to nudes and the changing face of America.

One thing is for sure—from the time he embarked on a career in professional photography back in 1971, there was absolutely no chance Jeff Dunas was ever going to get bored. Although born in Los Angeles in 1954 where today he runs his West Hollywood studio, much of Dunas’ career has been spent in other places, such as France (where he moved in 1977 and still visits frequently) and on extended road trips throughout the U.S.

The timeline of Dunas’ career is as rich and varied as the road map of his physical travels. It includes such highlights as founding Melrose Publishing Company in 1981 (publishing 24 fine art books including Paper Dolls by Art Kane and By the Sea by Robert Farber); launching Collectors Photography magazine and acquiring Darkroom Photography (he changed the name to Camera and Darkroom); and working on a vast range of commercial and personal projects. Quite simply, Jeff Dunas is a productive shooter whose vision and mindset are not limited to one discipline. And even more impressive is the fact that he excels in this multitude of fields—as much at home making portraits of celebrities such as Cameron Diaz and Angelina Jolie as he is shooting whimsical, offbeat street scenes of everyday people.

By the way, if you think that all doors opened easily to someone as talented and accomplished as Jeff Dunas and that celebs and others line up to have him make their portraits, think again. True, magazine and agency assignments provide a constant flow of work, and in such cases access to his subjects is a given. Unfortunately, on self assignments that is not always so. Case in point: Dunas’ remarkable portrait series on legends of blues music culminated in the book State of the Blues (Aperture, 1998) and a highly acclaimed touring exhibit. This collection of intimate, revealing portraits of the giants of the genre is important for the subject matter and its comprehensiveness. Within its 176 pages, State of the Blues features 108 portraits of over 90 percent of the truly great icons of blues music. Had it not been for Dunas’ conviction and tenacity, this body of work would never have been compiled, and the history of blues would be less rich.

Made over a period of five years, the portraits were shot predominately on location at the House of Blues in Los Angeles and the one in Chicago as well as during the Long Beach Blues Festivals, held each Labor Day on the campus of Cal State Long Beach. Others were made at radio station KLON during the Nothin’ But the Blues radio broadcast, at Dunas’ studio, at B.B. King’s club in Universal City, CA, at the Ash Grove in Santa Monica, CA, and at the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, Arkansas.

None of the location shoots was pre-arranged—Dunas would set up ahead of time and hope that artists would give him a few minutes before they went on stage. He described it as being somewhat like “guerrilla photography.” To present his case, he had an impressive portfolio of mounted portraits to show the musicians. The technical complexity of the on-location set of lights, umbrellas, backdrop and assistant confirmed that here was a professional, serious about his work and respectful of theirs.

“Basically I’d say, ‘Here’s my work. If you dig it, let’s shoot you.’ And they would either go along with it or not,” he explains. Time was of the essence, so invariably Dunas could shoot only six or seven frames before the artist went on stage. His goal was to create pure and direct portraits, without props and different from typical portraits of musicians—none of the legends in Dunas’ series hold instruments—and the results speak for themselves.

While many artists agreed to be photographed, some didn’t, and in those cases Dunas would pack up his gear and go home without having made a single image. Indicative of his determination to complete this project, even though he was not exactly sure where it was headed, is this statistic: 85 times he loaded his vehicle, drove to the location, set up the lights and backdrop and then headed home after the event. As the body of work grew, many previously reluctant subjects changed their minds. Etta James, on seeing Dunas’ Wall of Fame portrait exhibit in the House of Blues, demanded to know why she wasn’t included. “Because you said no to the photographer,” said her agent. Arrangements were made to photograph her that evening.

Ultimately Dunas had on film the majority of blues legends who were born in the South and had played between World War I and World War II. (These were the principal criteria.) Today State of the Blues, reprinted three times to date with some 90,000 copies worldwide, is one of the definitive visual records of an important field of music. Classic, dramatically lit portraits of artists such as Buddy Guy, Charlie Musselwhite, John Lee Hooker, Junior Wells, Jimmy Witherspoon, James Cotton, Bobby “Blue” Bland, John Mayall and almost 100 other legends are portrayed for posterity thanks to the vision of an outstanding photographer.

One of the keys to Dunas’ ability to remain enthusiastic and razor sharp is the variety of work he is doing at any given time. Most of his series are ongoing—he is constantly shooting and adding new material: As an example, the Laura series has spanned more than 14 years to date. By comparison—and an exception to his usual modus operandi—State of the Blues encompassed a relatively short five-year period and was a start-to-finish undertaking. All the others are works in progress but invariably destined for publication in yet another Jeff Dunas book.

Generally, couples who travel well together get along pretty well in other ways. Since they first met in 1989, Jeff and Laura Morton, a Canadian fashion model, have traveled thousands of miles with each other, including a month in the relatively close confines of a motor home crossing the U.S., shooting images for a story assigned by Giovanna Calvenzi (then the photography editor of Vanity Fair Italia). A real trouper, Laura styled every photo herself, did her own hair and makeup and infused the project with her tireless enthusiasm. Testimony to her “trouper spirit” is the fact that the 36-day journey of virtually non-stop shooting was made in summer and locations included places such as Bonnie Claire Playa, Death Valley, at that time of year one of the hottest spots on the planet.

The Laura series includes portraits made in numerous other parts of the U.S. and internationally including Agadir, Morocco, the south of France, St. Barts, Italy, England and Canada. Inspired by the works of other photographers—such as Harry Callahan’s series of his wife Eleanor, Alfred Steiglitz’s photographs of Georgia O’Keefe and Man Ray’s pictures of Kiki de Montparnasse and Lee Miller—Dunas says he had always dreamed of being able to visually document the life of one woman. “And unless one lives with his muse, this is impossible to accomplish,” he says. Their close relationship was taken a step further when the couple married in 1995.

At times, many photographers will sink into an unproductive period when the creative juices seem to dry up. In this regard, however, Jeff Dunas is unlike most other photographers—he is never lacking for something to do. “When I seek diversion, I seek it with a camera. I am happy when I am shooting, and even happier when I am printing the results, as I do with all my personal work,” he says.

While Jeff says he has used digital equipment and can appreciate its benefit, he still prefers to use film. He uses the Leica M-6 camera with the 28 and 35mm lenses for projects such as street pictures, flea markets and the Laura series. His choice of medium-format camera is the Mamiya RZ-67 and the Mamiya 7 systems with 50, 65,140 and 250mm APO lenses. He prefers Agfapan 400 film developed in Rodinal for black and white and Optima 200 color negative film for color work. Dunas prints his personal work on Forté VC fiber papers using Agfa developers.

Also in progress—and spanning 15 years—is the Street Pictures series, shot in Paris, New York and numerous other locations and which now contains thousands of mostly unpublished images. With his smoothly quiet Leica in hand, Dunas goes into something akin to stealth mode when shooting street scenes. It’s a far cry from working in the studio where everything is controlled, assistants are on hand, the usually famous subjects have limited time, and in Jeff’s mind’s eye the final portrait is already made. “Because I know pretty much what the shot will be, I usually need only six or seven frames to get what I want,” he says.

Out on the street he gets dialed in to extracting images from this environment. Not wanting to be distracted, he works alone—in the parlance of great athletes he gets into “the zone.” Jeff says, “I really don’t subscribe to capturing the ‘decisive moment’ and prefer to make the pictures happen. I couldn’t teach anyone how to do this kind of photography; it’s instinctive and natural for me. I don’t know what it is, but I have a way of interacting with people that makes them comfortable. They see a happy guy with a little camera having fun making pictures and usually respond. And if I see a way to make a good picture even better, I don’t hesitate to intervene.”

Another impressive body of Jeff Dunas’ work, commissioned by Eastman Kodak in 1989 to benefit the American Indian College Fund, is the Native American Portrait series, shot on location at the Joyce Theatre in New York City. While Dunas was keen to make portraits of the performers, funding was needed. For a long time it seemed no support would be forthcoming but a week before the event, Kodak agreed to underwrite the project. As a result, a set of 10 original signed and numbered 16x20 toned gelatin-silver prints were donated by Kodak to the college fund to be used in fundraising events and exhibited at the campuses of the American Indian universities. Like all classics, this one-off series has stood the test of time, as powerful and evocative today as it was when first exhibited.

Flea markets and nudes might be poles apart, but both are subjects that have always captivated Dunas. The majority of his flea market images have been shot at the Porte de Cligancourt and Port de Vanves in Paris, the Sixth Avenue Flea Market in New York City, and the Pasadena and Long Beach flea markets in California. “I never go anywhere without the Leica M6 and two lenses. The things that happen in front of a trained eye are astounding, and I often sense when something is going to happen. I keep the lens focused at infinity so I only have to turn the focusing ring in one direction to focus, and the M6 is so quiet and discreet that I am very unobtrusive,” he says.

By comparison, the Blue Series Nudes, photographed on location and in studios in many parts of the world required a more planned and technical approach. These graphically lit figure studies were made with electronic flash mixed with light painting techniques that Dunas developed and perfected between 1982 and 1988. It should be noted that Dunas was painting with light, starting with a powerful modified flashlight and later using slide projectors, spot lights and other sources, long before the Hosemaster® and its imitators and successors appeared.

Working on numerous series not only keeps Dunas fresh and rejuvenated; it also adds to his comprehensive portfolio of images, which in turn invariably leads to yet another book. In the works is a book on nudes with an Italian publisher; two European publishers are interested in a book on his street pictures; and a huge project that is well into the planning stage is a retrospective. Giovanna Calvenzi, now a leading Italian picture editor, is working with Dunas on this latter effort.

Such is the scope and quantity of Jeff Dunas’ photography that there is little doubt the retrospective of his work will be a seminal piece among books on photographers and their careers. And it will certainly reinforce the statement that here is a photographer who has never been—and never will be—bored. Out there, whether on the street or in a flea market, there are pictures to be found. Rest assured, Dunas will find them. And when those sources are not available, undoubtedly he will have nearby his most favored subject of all, Laura.

To see the full range of Jeff Dunas’ work, to purchase his books, and for technical and other information go to his web site: www.dunas.com/.

Freelance writer/photographer and author Peter Skinner, who has recently relocated to his native Australia, has more than 22 years experience in the photo industry in public relations, media liaison, corporate communications and workshop production and coordination. His magazine articles and photography have been published internationally and he has co-authored or edited numerous publications and books. He collaborated with Don Blair on an upcoming book Portrait Photography: The Art of Seeing Light (Amherst Media). He can be reached at: prsskinner@bigpond.com/.