Interview with Photographer David Montgomery

Professor David Montgomery is one of the most iconic photographers of our time. He was the first American invited to photograph Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and has since photographed five British Prime Ministers, presidents including Bill Clinton, as well as countless movie stars, rock legends, and cultural figures. He has been in rooms and witnessed moments that simply can’t be replicated or bought. His work has been exhibited at institutions including the National Portrait Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Kunstmuseum in Basel, and the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, and his photographs are held in important private collections around the world, especially here in Palm Beach.

 

 

His daughter, Palm Beacher Marissa Montgomery, hosted a talk with David last week at the Society of the Four Arts. Here’s a recap.

Marissa Montgomery: Do you still love photography?

David Montgomery: I love it. It’s one of the great love affairs of my life. I love a camera. Sometimes when I get a new one, I’ll let it hang out in bed with me for a few days, just so it can feel the vibes. I’m always looking for the light. There’s always something beautiful to see, everywhere, and I think that’s such an important way to move through life.

I love heading down to the beach in Florida and photographing surfers, just shooting for myself. Photography isn’t only my job, it’s my hobby, too. I feel incredibly privileged to do what I do, and I really love giving back when I can, especially teaching and encouraging others to see the world differently.

MM: What was the most important photograph of your career?

DM: Without a doubt, personally to me, photographing the Queen (of England). When The Observer first asked me to photograph Queen Elizabeth II, I said no. I honestly didn’t think I could do it. You can have access to celebrities, famous people, whoever, but the Queen is different. She dedicated her entire life to service, and it felt overwhelming. I just didn’t think I was the right person. I went home and my wife asked, “How was your day?” I said, “Oh, I was asked to photograph the Queen.” She asked, “When are you doing it?” I said, “I’m not.“ And she looked at me and said, “Are you crazy? You call them back right now.” So I did. I got through to the art director and said, “If you haven’t found anyone yet, I’m available and I’d like to do it.”

Being an American from Brooklyn, New York, I never really felt accepted in London. It was very much a boy’s club. David Bailey, Lord Snowden, Lichfield, Terence Donovan… those were the guys. When that cover came out, it cemented me in the UK. For the first time, I really felt like I belonged.

It was also one of the most magical days of my life. I was the first American to photograph the Queen, and the first person to photograph her in a relaxed position. I walked into Balmoral–this massive, epic castle–and asked her where she usually sat. She pointed to the floor. I couldn’t believe it. She sat on the floor next to a little two-bar heater. Her skin was flawless like porcelain. There was no hair and makeup in those days. I told her she’d need to stand very still because I wasn’t using flash, and she never flinched. She was extraordinary. We even took her outside to photograph her with her ponies. She whistled and they all came running toward her. It was pure magic. The time I spent with her was incredibly special to me. I’ll never forget it.

 

 

MM: Tell me about the photograph of Dolly Parton signing the man’s back.

DM: I loved country music, and Dolly and I became friends. She is genuinely one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, just incredibly kind. I’d finished shooting her and was backstage when I met this guy who said, “I’m the biggest Dolly fan. I have her tattooed on my back. Do you think she’d sign it?” I said, “Let’s ask.” I went back to Dolly, and she said, “Sure.” He took his shirt off, and I photographed her signing the tattoo. She looked at him and said, “Honey, I don’t know why you’d want to deface yourself like that, but sure I’ll sign it.” I thought it was hilarious.

 

 

MM: You’re also incredibly well known for your photograph of Jimi Hendrix. What was that shoot like?

DM: That photograph is from the Electric Ladyland album cover. The fire behind him is real—this was long before Photoshop. We wanted to show Jimi as hot—literally—so we decided on a wall of flames. I had one assistant laying a line of petrol, another assistant with a match. This was all shot on film. I said, “Action.” The match was lit, the flames went up—and we nearly cooked Jimi. Thank goodness we didn’t. He was a wonderful guy. And yes, I also shot all the naked women for the album cover. That was… a whole other story. And a very funny one.

 

 

MM: You photographed many great artists, like David Hockney.

DM: The Sunday Times once asked me who I thought was a great British genius, and I said David Hockney. I’ve always been a huge fan of his work. I also liked that he lived in Los Angeles, it gave me an excuse to go there. There’s a photograph of him where he took me for a drive. I was up on Mulholland Drive, and he casually mentioned in the car that he’d failed his driving test a couple of times. That always made me laugh. He was a really lovely man.

 

 

MM: Any other artists that stand out to you?

DM: So many. Andy Warhol, for one. I went to The Factory to photograph him. He showed me his scars from when he’d been shot. There’s one photograph I love of Andy looking into a mirror, it’s very introspective. You can’t quite tell which image is the reflection and which one is him.

There’s another where he’s standing by the window. He was actually watching someone in a nearby building who was threatening to jump. Andy said, very calmly, “I wish they’d jump already so I could concentrate.” That was Andy; brilliant, strange, and completely himself.

 

 

MM: You also photographed Bill Cunningham—and he famously said in his documentary that the first person to ever give him a camera was you.

DM: Yes, Bill and I were old friends. I knew him a long time ago. We used to hang out at Carnegie Hall with Antonio Lopez the fashion artist and a whole group of people. It was a very special time. Bill was wonderful. I always saw him walking around with a sketchpad. One day I said, “Here, Bill take this camera and use it as your notebook.” And he really did. He took the most beautiful pictures. He had such an eye.

 

 

MM: What about Alfred Hitchcock?

DM: I love that photograph. I was flown all the way to Los Angeles to photograph Alfred Hitchcock. I’d only been there about five minutes when someone tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Okay, you’ve got two minutes left.” In total, I had seven minutes with him. We were on a studio lot. I’d been told he was waiting for an important phone call, and suddenly he started talking to me about oysters from somewhere in England. At that point, I had a complete out-of-body experience. It was surreal.

 

 

MM: I love the Sophia Loren image.

DM: That’s a good story. I was asked to photograph Sophia Loren for Harper’s Bazaar, and there was a lot of back and forth because she wanted to see my portfolio. At the time, I was doing a lot of advertising work, and I just didn’t have time to prepare anything special. Eventually my agent called and said, “Sophia wants to shoot with you.” I showed up at her apartment and completely lost my voice. I couldn’t speak for about 30 minutes. She said, “What’s wrong with you?” She was Sophia Loren. A real movie star. We did a few photographs. This was all before Photoshop. If you wanted to change anything on a face, you had to physically scratch the negative in the darkroom.

 

 

MM: Did you have your own darkroom?

DM: Yes, I had a studio and a darkroom, and I loved printing. I really did. I remember when Don McCullin was at war and sent his images back. This was the 1960s I was shooting fashion at the time. He asked me to print his photographs. It was incredibly surreal, seeing images of soldiers with their legs blown off. I have the greatest respect for Don and the work he’s done.

MM: You were originally a percussion jazz musician and trained at Juilliard but you dropped out. Why?

DM: I realized I could never really be that good. Around that time, a close friend of mine, Jimmy Moore, got a job assisting Richard Avedon. I saw the photographs and thought this is incredible. The idea that you could immortalize a moment forever. That was it for me. And, I’ll be honest the women weren’t bad looking either. I started working for Lester Bookbinder in New York, then moved to London in the 1960s. I’ve always had an internal beat in me. I shoot to the rhythm of a drummer. Even when I’m working, there’s this intrinsic timing that guides everything I do.

MM: Speaking of music—Mick Jagger and Sticky Fingers.

DM: That shoot was so much fun. Andy Warhol designed the album cover for Sticky Fingers, and I shot all the press images for The Rolling Stones. They loved one of the images so much that it became a tour T-shirt. Mick and Keith lived at the end of my road in Chelsea and showed up very late as usual. They didn’t want to do the shoot. The idea was that since the album cover featured denim jeans, they’d take their trousers off and hold the cover in front of them. They weren’t keen. I finally said, “Listen, I’ve got dinner waiting at home. I don’t need to be here, you’re paying me.” That did the trick.

Everything in that photograph is intentional. The clothes on the floor next to Mick? Those are Keith Richards’ clothes. We wanted it to feel unmistakably like a studio. And Mick—he’s a trickster to the end. If you look closely, he’s holding the album cover upside down. I love that. It captures his cheeky sense of humor perfectly.

 

For enquiries of David’s prints you can email: [email protected]