Douglas Kirkland started his career in 1957 as an apprentice to photographer Irving Penn and was hired by Look Magazine as a photojournalist.
Since then, he has completed scores of projects and books, and his fine art photographs have been widely exhibited worldwide, in both galleries and museums. In 2002 Kirkland was named ‘Photographer of the Year’ by PhotoImaging, Manufacturing and Distributor’s Association (PMDA). He is the recipient of the 2003 Lucie Award for ‘Outstanding Achievement in Entertainment Photography’, as well as receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Motion Picture Society of Operating Cameramen. In 2006 he was awarded The Golden Eye of Russia and also honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from CAPIC in his native Toronto, Canada.
In 2007, Douglas received an Honorary Master of Fine Arts Degree form Brooks Institute for his commitment and dedication to his profession. Douglas Kirkland’s photographs have been on view and are in the collection of numerous museums and institutions in the US and internationally, among them Eastman House in Rochester, The Annenberg Space for Photography, Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, The Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh, PA), Hallmark Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Museum of the Triennial in Milan, The Smithsonian, the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Photography (Tokyo); Gemeentemuseum of Den Haag (The Netherlands), Southeast Museum of Photography. His exhibition, My Life in Pictures, at the Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia (solo) was rated number 3 in terms of visitor attendance of all 2010 photography museum exhibitions internationally, according to the Art Newspaper. An exhibition of images of Coco Chanel, 1962, launched, organized and curated by Westwood Gallery, is currently touring selected locations worldwide. Photography books by Douglas Kirkland include: Light Years, Redefining Beauty, Out of Africa, Portraits of a Film “Show Girls”, Icons, Legends, Body Stories, Woza Africa, James Cameron’s Titanic, Freeze Frame, Down with Love, An Evening with Marilyn, Chanel: Three Weeks, 1962, Mademoiselle (with a foreword by Karl Lagerfeld). “Titanic” was the first photography book to reach No.1 on the New York Times Best Seller list, both in hardcover and paperback.
