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Rangefinder
Magazine David LaClaire: Classic Portraiture by Lou Jacobs Jr.
My interest in David LaClaire of Grand Rapids, MI, was immediate when I opened his luxurious book, Photographic Portraiture. It’s a prodigious, large-format, 294-page collection of almost 500 images, plus family and studio history beginning with David’s father, Maurice. Maurice’s interest in photography began in 1916 with pictures for his high school scrapbook. After graduation he studied portraiture with William Spencer “Dad” Lively at his Southern School of Photography. Hired later by Harris and Ewing in Washington, D.C., Maurice perfected his skills in lighting and posing. In 1926 he began working for a studio in Grand Rapids, MI, and a year later, opened his own studio. When Maurice’s son and future partner, David, was born in 1929, the boy’s heritage was preordained. The first 40 pages of the book are a tribute to Maurice’s work. Included are elegant sepia-toned portraits of men, women, children and landscapes. Some of the portraits are character studies—bearded men, costumed women and cute kids. Considering that Maurice’s black-and-white pictures were taken with carbon arc and fluorescent lights and slow films, they exhibit a distinguished variety of portrait styles, including two atmospheric bromoil nude studies.
“ And then there was color,” states the book’s next section. David writes that in 1941, Eastman Kodak “purchased a promising process called dye transfer,” and Maurice made many experimental pictures during his four years of research with Eastman Kodak. After World War II Maurice provided the first demonstration of strobe lights to portrait photographers, and by 1948 his black-and-white business ceased. He patiently courted a clientele who would accept color work, and his pioneering was noted in newspaper stories and in a one-man show in New York. 1947 Maurice taught color portraiture at Winona. His color portraits show his traditional style that a diversity of clients admired. Prominent people and their families sat still for portraits in color when exposures must have been several seconds. David’s book, Photographic Portraiture, is handsomely laid out and beautifully printed. Every image is captioned with the subject’s name and date. When David joined Maurice as an “apprentice” in the 1950s, his father already had national recognition with portrait shows at the Smithsonian Museum and New York’s Grand Central Station. David describes the studio lab’s elaborate production setup where his first assignment was learning to expose masks and separation negatives. Prints up to 20x24 were made, and a separate darkroom was devoted to research. During this time, New York’s famed Bachrach Studios retained the LaClaires to train photographers in color portraiture. For five years personnel from Grand Rapids helped print all of Bachrach’s color portraits.
While David enjoyed the best of influences and professional experiences, he also attended many state and national conventions, where he soon was asked to present his own programs. He taught color portraiture at Winona, but says it was difficult trying to stand in his father’s shoes and “point the way” for other photographs. David became a partner in the studio in 1950 and, since 1960, has been the president. He continued as a lecturer and author for professional groups and publications, and was president of the Grand Rapids Art Museum and Rotary Club among other distinctions. The list of familiar professional, fraternal and regional organizations to which he belongs is long and impressive. As David became more deeply involved in the business, he wondered, “Could portrait photography be more than a superficial celebration of the ego?” During this introspection he thought about the significance of personal portraits and was encouraged when families of deceased portrait subjects asked for new prints. In one case he told a surviving son to look for a series of portraits of his father that the younger man hadn’t known existed. The father had planned to leave the photographs without risking the “embarrassment” of a display of ego. David was encouraged as he prospered, knowing that his portraits of public figures “helped put a human face on institutions they represented.”
Among distinguished-looking businessmen and their families in the book are outstanding group portraits in homes and on location. Several include 20 or more individuals from three generations. Maurice and David photographed Henry Ford II in Dearborn, MI, and provided pictures to Norman Rockwell who oversaw the sitting. David says, “Rockwell duplicated our portrait with only one small change.”
The LaClaire Studio has also photographed numerous well-known people such as Gerald Ford—as congressman and as President; Cecil Beaton in a swanky shirt and tie; Vincent Price looking regal; philosopher Joseph Campbell in a neat triple exposure; Admiral Richard Byrd; a quizzical Ed Sullivan; sculptor Alexander Calder and wife; and Yousuf Karsh at ease (see next page). Of trumpeter William “Cat” Anderson, David remembers taking him to breakfast first, adding, “He ordered a bowl of soup and a martini. He didn’t finish the soup!” On page 64 of the book is a splendid illustration of a blacksmith shop in what looks like natural light, though more must have been skillfully added. The photo was part of a series Maurice did of “professional craftspeople.”
Slowly and naturally, David says, he took charge of studio activities. Starting in 1960, Maurice, who died in 1970, gracefully handed off responsibility to his son. David says he felt well prepared to carry on. He soon moved the studio to a “handsome brick retail building” and transferred the lab to another structure, which was air-conditioned. “ The 1970s,” David states, “proved to be the busiest decade of my career.” The studio and lab were made separate corporations to keep financial statements in order and to control costs. Both studio and lab explored the use of Ektacolor prints as a less-expensive option, “but the prints failed because of their impermanence.” In early 1980 the studio again moved to new quarters, an 8000-square-foot building in Cascade Township, MI. David observes, “The gallery was very nice, but not as elegant as at our previous studio. The camera room was much improved, and the lab was a dream.” Their color film processing and printing services expanded, as did their staff. But, David states, the technical quality of the images produced was no better than from his dad’s lab in the 1950s. “For some time,” he says, “I had been aware how photographs can seem to make themselves with the photographer as simply a conduit. I am often conscious as I work that the portrait is taking over its own creation. I’m still fascinated by this experience.” LaClaire Studio photography and lighting were inevitably smooth, and the numerous images in this book are the evidence. Many indoor and outdoor location shots are mainly of families, and the LaClaires were fortunate that their clientele lived in handsome homes with lush grounds. Environmental pictures are entertaining in their detail, and both the photographs and the people in them have character. The 1990s were a time of transition for the studio. Kodak stopped producing dye transfer materials and “all of a sudden our dream lab was obsolete. The digital age had arrived.” David and staff set out to test the new digital process to determine if it could meet their standards. His daughter Hester became proficient at the computer, and Tim Creamer, who had been a film processor, became their digital guru. Fujifilm made papers that tests showed had a lot more stability than dye transfers in normal display conditions. Their drum scanner had enough computer capacity and 5x7 transparencies produced high-quality prints. The studio willingly went to digital. At the book’s end there’s a short list of equipment the studio uses: a 5x7 Deardorff with 210mm and 300mm lenses; a Canon EOS, Kodak Ektachrome, Adobe Photoshop and a Durst Dice Lambda 130 printer. As its primary source of lighting LaClaire Studios has used Balcar Concept P4 with three power packs, six 1800-watt-second lights and four Balcar monoblocks. Maurice and David’s photography exhibited in this book is exemplary.
Though rarely avant-garde, all the work is well composed and lighted.
A few examples: on page 108 there’s a striking and atypical photograph
of a living room with a high ceiling and dynamic lines towering over
a family in the background (see opposite page). On page 237 is a touching
portrait of an older man, chin-on-hand, looking slightly grumpy. But
mainly the people in LaClaire portraits are smiling, and for good reason.
They know they’ll be receiving classy portraits of themselves. Lou Jacobs Jr. is the author of 25 how-to photography books, including the latest, called Photographer’s Lighting Handbook (Amherst Media). He has taught at UCLA and Brooks, is a longtime member of ASMP, and enjoy shooting stock during his travels in the U.S. and abroad.
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