THE IMAGINATIVE IMAGING OF PAT YORK
By Alex Simon
Originally featured in the October 2003 issue of Venice Magazine
Pat York has been a major voice in the world of photography for more than 35 years. Like most people who excel at their chosen craft, Pat discovered the art of the still photograph by accident. In the mid-60s, then called Patricia McCallum, Pat began her career as a journalist with Conde Nast publications, beginning with Vogue, then moving on to Glamour, where she worked as a fashion editor. Her great love at the time being painting, Pat never took photography seriously until a fortuitous assignment in Japan paired her up with legendary photographer David Bailey, who took her with him to the Nikon factory. Once there, Pat became smitten with the workings of cameras, and soon found herself the proud owner of a Nikon and three lenses.
Her newfound passion firmly in place, Pat began a new career as a photojournalist, a path that eventually led her to meet her husband of 35 years, actor Michael York, whom she first encountered as an interview subject. Since then, Pat has photographed some of the world’s most iconic film stars and filmmakers, at work and at play. The highlights from those years can be seen on display at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in a magnificent exhibition entitled “Imaging and Imagining: The Film World of Pat York.” On display through December 7, the show features both posed and candid shots of such diverse figures as Sean Connery, Jane Fonda, John Frankenheimer, Barry Diller, William Friedkin, Andy Warhol, Zooey Deschanel, John Travolta, and of course Michael York, to name but a few.
In addition to Pat’s work with some of Hollywood’s finest, she is also celebrated for a series of photos she did of people performing their daily jobs and routines in the nude, from plumbers, to Hollywood agents, to hairdressers. Most recently, Pat has done a riveting series of studies of the human body, photographing various parts of cadavers in dissected states, for a book she is currently working on.
The lovely Mrs. York sat down with Venice recently in her Beverly Hills home to discuss her career as one of the world’s premiere image-grabbers.
VENICE: You have a very diverse background.
Pat York: I was born in Jamaica. My father was a British diplomat. When we returned home, I went to a French convent school in England, and also attended school in Germany. I got married very young and attended various universities. I’ve always traveled, and it’s funny: when I was a kid, my mother knew a person who read my palm, and she said “You have the most traveling hand I’ve ever seen! Anyone who comes in your orbit will do nothing but travel.” When Michael and I met, all his movies were shot in remote parts of the world.
Tell us about how you fell into being a photographer.
Irwin Shaw was a mentor of mine when I was very young, and read my writing and encouraged me to develop my ability. I began working for Conde Nast, then got a job with Glamour as a travel editor, which basically entailed me traveling all over the world and writing about it. It was an incredible job! On one of the trips, I was in Japan with David Bailey, who took me to the Nikon factory, where I bought this amazing camera and three lenses. David said “Pat, that’s like someone who’s never driven a car being given a Ferrari!” (laughs) From there we went on to Africa, to Spain, Portugal and Paris, and he gave me lessons during the entire trip. I just went mad for it. I’d always painted before that, so for me, this was like a median between one form of visual expression to another. Alex Lieberman, who was the art director of Conde Nast, looked at some of my work and said “Right, I’m not sending you out with a photographer anymore.” And my first assignment was to photograph Robert and Teddy Kennedy.
What was that like?
They were wonderful, Bobby I liked particularly. The thing I admired about Teddy, though, was that he’d survived a very bad plane crash recently and he was obviously in pain during the shoot. To show the kind of sibling rivalry that existed in the family, Bobby said to me “I understand you photographed my brother last week.” I said ‘Yes, I did.” “Did you like him?” “Yes, I did.” “Did you like him as much as you like me?” (laughs) It was so childish! This was a couple years before he was killed, and here’s an example of the old rule that a photographer should always have a camera ready to go on their shoulder. I had put mine in my bag, and Bobby was trying to get the car to take me to the airport, but Ethel had it. He was waiting on the steps for me, and a little dog ran out into the street. Bobby ran out into the street to stop traffic so the little dog could get across safely, and I don’t have a photograph of this! It’s still in my mind’s eye.
You met your husband, Michael York, as the result of a photo shoot, right?
Yes. We met for a Glamour shoot in 1967. We got married a year later. We’d both been engaged, actually. I had asked for a “sabbatical” from my fiancée just recently and it turned out that he had done the same with his, even used the same word! Isn’t that extraordinary? It was the last thing I was thinking about when I went on the shoot, I can tell you. But it just happened, and we both knew immediately.
When you started traveling with Michael on his shoots, that’s where a great number of the photos that are on display at the Academy were taken, yes?
Exactly. You what’s been so fun about going through all those photos again, is writing the vignettes that go with them, about 60 of them, which explains how I feel about the person and the location and the whole atmosphere of what was going on while the picture was shot.
Who are some of your favorite subjects that appear in the show?
I’ve always chosen people who I think that I would get along with. I don’t know if it’s some built-in instinct that I have, but I really love them all. I did a book on older people about ten years ago, because I got tired of photographing celebrities. I got the idea because I was very close to my grandmother, who was biologically older than me, but so young at heart. So I did this book as a tribute to her, and the youngest person in it was 75, the oldest was 106, all of whom were working full-time, both well-known and unknown people. I photographed and interviewed them all. It’s one of the most life-enhancing things I’ve ever done. They were just incredible people, all so young at heart, and all of whom said they’d be dead in three months if they retired. The 106 year-old was George Abbott, who was a famous writer/director/producer. At that time, George was rehearsing a play he was doing off-Broadway. He could only get the rehearsal space from 6-11 at night, but it didn’t faze him, isn’t that incredible?
It was like Leni Riefenstahl just dying at 101. She never stopped working either.
I think she lied by 50 years to get her license to dive, because she did all that underwater photography starting when she was in her 70s! Her lover was something like 50 years younger than her. First of all I think she was brilliant. But second, I don’t see how we can judge this woman when none of us know the full facts about how involved, or uninvolved with Nazism she was, because we weren’t there.
Another fascinating series you did were the studies of cadavers.
I became interested in that through an amazing chiropractor-neurologist I know, Dr. Marc Pick. Michael and I take only homeopathic remedies and I’ve always been fascinated by health and medicine and ways in which we can prevent illness. I think if we can come up with natural ways to combat disease, we’d not only enhance our lives, but also reduce the amount we spend on hospitals and pharmaceuticals. So I interviewed Marc and I knew he dissected cadavers and he invited me down to see some of them. I went down with great trepidation, but then found them to be the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, just the structure of the human body. I felt so privileged. It’s the most important work I’ve ever done, and has been received all over the world. If you see the interior of a body, and realize how our outer skin is just a covering, a layer, how could you possibly feel prejudice towards anyone when we all have this extraordinary interior?
So that series is obviously your favorite so far.
Yes, although I must say that since I started photographing celebrities again, I’ve really enjoyed that as well, particularly the younger generation of actors coming up. I loved shooting Zooey Deschanel and her sister Emily. They’re so lovely and have such great values. They give you a lot of pleasure and hope.
It’s interesting because although it sounds as though you’ve photographed such huge variety of things, when you look at all your work put together, your voice and your vision is very present throughout. I see, even early on, a real fascination with the contour of the human face and human form. So the studies of the dissections are really just an extension of your earlier work.
Thank you. I suppose that’s true. When someone recently asked me who’s influenced me as a photographer, I had to answer that it was painters: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Caravaggio…light has always fascinated me. Even when I wake up in the morning, seeing the shadows through the trees gives me such pleasure. Light is such an important part of my life. How a person is lit when I photograph them is very important to me. I love the work of Andres Serrano. He’s my favorite contemporary photographer.
How was your nude series born?
Michael and I were at Buckingham Palace. He was being awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) by the Queen, and it was just such a stuffy affair. The royals were all very nice, but they were surrounded by people who probably keep them from knowing what the real world is like. I thought if we all had no clothes on, it would be much more relaxed. So that’s where the idea was born.
Who was your favorite subject for that series?
My plumber came one afternoon, the best plumber we’ve ever had, and I asked if he’d do me a favor. He said “I’ll do anything for you, Mrs. York.” “Would you let me photograph you in the nude while you work?” He said “You must be joking!” (laughs) So I showed him some of the pictures I’d done already, explaining that all the people then wrote about their experience of being photographed in the nude, or about their reaction to the photos of the cadavers. So he wrote this amazing piece to go with his pictures, my favorite of all of them. He came back a few months later to do normal work, and when we said goodbye, he said “This is really goodbye. I want you to know you’ve changed my life. Before, I hated my body, but now I accept it and look at myself in the mirror for the first time. Also, when I looked at the cadavers, it made me ask philosophical questions about life and death and what I’m doing with my own life. I realized that I hate my job, so I sold my company and I’m moving to the east coast in three days. I’m going to work as a water consultant from 9 until 3, then write full time in the evenings.” So, he still keeps in touch, but Michael was furious with me, because he said we lost the best plumber we’d ever had! (laughs)
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