In September 1996, photographer Bruce Weber paid a visit to Dan Gable’s Wrestling Camp in order to shoot some pictures. In a large sports hall filled with over a thousand boys busy training, he put the camera up to his eye and, through the lens, caught sight of a young wrestler named Peter Johnson.
This was to mark the beginning of a marvelous collaboration; four years later, Peter Johnson had become a highly-paid photographic model working for the likes of Ralph Lauren,Versace and Lagerfeld. Over the years, Bruce Weber has often photographed Peter; his photos chart Peter’s transformation from a pretty young boy into a beautiful-looking man.
In this autobiographical film, Bruce Weber looks back on his career as both photographer and filmmaker. The images that have been brought together are as diverse as the ingredients of the dish that gave the film its title. A photographer never knows where their work will take them; this photographer has ended up in the most incredible places – from the catwalks of the world’s fashion capitals to the remotest parts of the Arabian desert. Wherever he is, however, one thing never changes, namely the intimacy between photographer and subject. These then, are the moments that form the focal point of this film.
Models and supermodels are not the only people Weber has met during his career; actor Robert Mitchum, singer Frances Faye, fashion expert Diana Vreeland and British desert explorer Sir Wilfred Thesiger all put in an appearance on old photographs. –Berlinale
Bruce Weber (born March 29, 1946 in Greensburg, Pennsylvania) is an American fashion photographer and occasional filmmaker. He is most widely known for his ad campaigns for Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren,Pirelli, Abercrombie & Fitch, Revlon, and Gianni Versace, as well as his work for Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, Elle, Life, Interview, and Rolling Stone magazines.
Weber’s fashion photography first appeared in the late 1970s in GQ magazine, where he had frequent cover photos. Nan Bush, his longtime companion and agent, was able to secure a contract with Federated Department Stores to shoot the 1978 Bloomingdales mail catalog. He came to the attention of the general public in the late 1980s and early 1990s with his advertising images for Calvin Klein. His straightforward black and white shots, featuring an unclothed heterosexual couple on a swing facing each other, two clothed men in bed, and model Marcus Schenkenberg barely holding jeans in front of himself in a shower, catapulted… read more
