Bob Carlos Clarke
Rubber was one of his fascinations from the 1970s.
Contents |
Biography
Early life and education
Robert (Bob) Carlos Clarke was born in Kinsale, County Cork, and was sent to board at Wellington College in Berkshire. Here he was reported to be an average student. A vexed housemaster wrote in a school report:
"Robert is not a clever boy and has not made the best of his time at Wellington. He would do well to put more thought into goals and waste less time on girls and guitars."
In 1970, he studied photography at Worthing College of Art and at the London College of Printing, where he met John Sutcliffe, also known as "the Commander". He published a quarterly magazine for fans of rubber wear (Atomage). In a Sunday Times Magazine piece on Carlos Clarke, he is reported to have said:
"I devoted the following decade to shooting women in high heels, and got myself thoroughly rubber-stamped with a reputation that became something of an embarrassment a decade later, when pink rubbery party dresses became synonymous with bottle blonde bimbos and provincial sex shops."
Carlos Clarke graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1975 with an MA in photography.
Work
In his early working years, Carlos Clarke took different assignments, like for example shooting Page Three Girls like Jilly Johnson. In 1980, he worked again with Johnson, this time to create one of his well-known images, "Das Schwimmbad". For this picture Carlos Clarke amalgamated three elements to create the resulting image: the model Jilly Johnson photographed in his Earls Court studio, the swimming pool at the Hôtel Splendid in Cannes, and and a brooding Irish skyline.
His career took off in 1980 when he shot the photographs for an illustrated edition of Anaïs Nin’s book of erotic stories Delta of Venus, followed by Obsession (1981) and a stream of glossy coffee-table books, including The Dark Summer (1985) and Shooting Sex (2002). At times his work attracted heavy criticism. He responded:
"It’s the feminists and the lesbians that should be supporting female nudes. The female fashion editors have colluded in the demise of their own sex by going along with the ludicrous charade of supermodels. Fashion poses a far greater threat to modern woman than pornography, with its wild demands that she conform to that freakish body shape."
Carlos Clarke was also renowned for numerous advertising campaigns, including ones for Levi’s, Smirnoff and Volkswagen, and is credited with revolutionising food publishing after documenting the then little-known chef Marco Pierre White in a series of photographs published in 1990 in a book called White Heat.
Carlos Clarke is perhaps best known for his photographs of various celebrities such as Keith Richards, Rachel Weisz, and Dita Von Teese. He had known the actress Rachel Weisz since she was 14, and they remained good friends. The photograph of her in a latex suit was taken in 1996, before Weisz became widely known.
The American model and burlesque performer Von Teese was the last big celebrity to be photographed by Carlos Clarke. This session followed in the style of his Love-Dolls Never Die series, featuring "strong, independent women who run the world".
Reflections
Bob Carlos Clarke was technically versatile, daringly creative and commercially savvy. A larger than life character who will be remembered as much for his off-the-cuff comments "Do it to get laid, but get a real job" – as for his highly evocative images. His large, lustrous coffee-table books straddle the fine line between erotica and porn. Although claimed that he made more money from selling his property than his photography, his books, particularly Shooting Sex (subtitled, the definitive guide to undressing beautiful strangers) that included his candid remarks about the shoots, have been best sellers. "It’s not a job. It’s an addiction," he’s quoted as saying, "I could have entertained a fashionable class-A drug habit. But I chose instead to indulge an unfashionable dependence on A-class females".
Though Carlos Clarke continued to sell his work to magazines throughout the 1990s and worked on many commissioned projects, he seemed to become disillusioned:
"After 30 years as a photographer I can say this business has got harder, more callous, less open and much more competitive. In the 1960s, photographers ranked just behind rock stars in terms of image. Now they’re way down the list, behind brawling footballers and provincial DJs."
Death
Around the time of his death, he was busy preparing to open his Love-Dolls Never Die exhibition in Barcelona, and hanging photographs in one of Marco Pierre White’s new restaurants, Luciano. Towards the end of his life, Carlos Clarke was experiencing personal difficulties that even close friends seemed unaware of. In early March he admitted himself to the Priory, the private psychiatric hospital in southwest London. On March 25 he left the hospital – which, as a voluntary patient, he was free to do. From there he took a short walk to a level crossing in Barnes where, witnesses say, he stepped in front of a Waterloo-bound train.
Robert Carlos Clarke died on March 25, 2006, aged 55.
He was buried at Brompton cemetery in a non-religious ceremony in early April 2006. An eulogy was read by Rupert Morris, a minister from the British Humanist Association:
"In retrospect, the signs were there that he might choose one day to end his life in some sudden and violent way. His own work is full of allusions to such things, and many of you here may well have your own insights. For his wife, Lindsey, certainly, the manner of his death, although deeply shocking and wounding, was not entirely a surprise."
Clarke was married twice, and had one daughter, Scarlett, with his second wife, Lindsey.
BCC Legacy
The Bob Carlos Clarke Foundation has been set up to support young photographers.
For further information and to view his portfolio, see www.bobcarlosclarke.com.
Source
The text here is a complication from these sources:
- 14th May 2006 article on Bob Carlos Clarke in the The Sunday Times Magazine (pp. 36-41)
- Eyemazing Gallery, In memory of Robert Carlos Clarke, 07 July 2006
Books
- Delta of Venus (1979)
- Obsession (1981, Quartet)
- The Dark Summer (1985, Quartet)
- White Heat (1990, Octopus)
- Shooting Sex (2003)
- Love Dolls Never Die (2004)
External links
- Official Website
- Biography and Art: [1]
- BBC News story: Bob Carlos Clarke dies in accident
- Daily Mirror story: Top photographer leaps in front of commuter train
- Guardian Online - Bob Carlos Clarke obituary
