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My journey ends here...

WILLOUGHBY Bob

Robert Hanley "Bob" Willoughby.

Date of birth : June 30, 1927, Los Angeles.

Date of death : December 18, 2009, Vence, France.

Practise : photographer.

Portrait

Story

He pursued photography after receiving a camera as a gift on his 12th birthday. He studied photography at the University of Southern California and worked under graphic designer Saul Bass.

Between 1948 and 1954, his exhibitions of photographs of jazz musicians and dancers led to a contract with Globe Photos. Later, he worked for Harper's Bazaar magazine where his photographs illustrated arts and culture articles.

He was assigned by six magazines to photograph Judy Garland during the filming of "A Star is Born" (1954).
That was his big break. He was hired by Warner Brothers; this was the first time a motion picture studio hired a special or unit photographer to specifically take photographs for sale to magazines. The result was a Life magazine cover, the second one for Judy Garland, the first for him ().

Thus, he covered many movies, including "Raintree Country" (1957), "My Fair Lady" (1964) and "Catch-2" (1970).

He continued to photograph for the rest of his life. He lived in Ireland for 17 years where he used his photographic skills to illustrate ancient Irish poetry text with photographs of the countryside. In addition, he authored books on photography and other subjects.
He lived his last years in Vence, France, where he continued a very active professional life.

Link with Marilyn

He took pictures of Marilyn in "Niagara" (1953) and "Let's Make Love" (1960) (,,,,).