David Cluett • The Big Pictures
David Cluett
The Big Pictures
The Big Pictures
David Cluett was shooting film on his Kodak Brownie camera at age 10 and developing his film in a darkroom at summer camp on Cape Cod in the early 60’s. Over the years a camera was never far from his eye.
As a teenager he found himself shooting Rock and Roll musicians on stage in recording studios and in their private lives and selling the pictures to various rock magazines. Rock stars had model girlfriends and soon he was shooting pictures for their portfolios, and eventually for the top Model Agencies in New York City, Zoli, Elite, Ford, Wilhelmina...
David moved to Los Angeles in 1974 and attended the University of Southern California where he studied film and literature and continued shooting music associated jobs and model agency work. He moved to a house on the beach in Malibu where he honed his skill as a fashion photographer, eventually landing national campaigns with swim and sportswear companies.
After graduating, Cluett traveled around the world for 6 months shooting various freelance jobs including an assignment with Newsweek Magazine covering the exodus of Cambodian Refugees into Thailand in 1979. On returning from his world tour, David took jobs as a highly paid assistant to established top photographers shooting in LA, NY and locations around the world.
In 1984 David moved to Paris, France with his model and muse girlfriend where he shot fashion and beauty jobs for European magazines and catalogs. During this time, he was in the vanguard of fashion photographers bringing their clients to Miami’s South Beach as it emerged as the go-to location for fashion photography in the early 1980’s.
In the late 1990s David returned from France to NYC and established “Sandbox Studios” in Soho, which became a favorite space for top magazines, ad agencies, T.V. and film production. Clients included Conde Nast, Vanity Fair, Italian Vogue, Rolling Stone, NBC News Dateline and many others.
Sandbox Studios closed its doors just before 9/11/2001 and David returned to his Connecticut home and family to raise his daughter, Skylar, and look after his aging mother.
Never retiring, David has since worked with his archives, moving film images to digital and expressing new work from the effort.
His show “The Big Pictures” is a sampling of that venture and is the first look at images resulting from 50 years behind the lens.
“The Big Pictures” Grand Opening will be held at 8331 Melrose Ave, LA 90069 Thursday December 8th, 2022 6-9pm
Invitation Only • RSVP at dgcjr@mac.com
