Customer Reviews

Steve McQueen

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

According to his foreward to this book, the photographer William Claxton met Steve McQueen in 1962 when McQueen was starring with Natalie Woods in LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER. The two men formed a friendship and apparently Mr. Claxton became Mr. McQueen's favorite and most requested photographer. This book of wonderful photographs, covering a couple of years in Mr. McQueen's life from 1962 to 1964, is a result of that brief friendship. Most of the pictures appear to be shot in available light and have a wonderful, informal spontaneity about them impossible to capture in formal portraiture. Both the photographer and subject are comnpletely without pretention.

Mr. Claxton caught Mr. McQueen smiling, clowning and pensive. There are photographs of McQueen in fast cars as well as on motorcycles. Many of the shots were done while Mr. McQueen was working on movies. There are also many pictures of him with family and friends. Most of the shots are in black and white with a few in color. Every time I look at them I find yet another photograph that I think is the best in the book. There is a haunting shot of McQueen with his young daughter where the child, sitting on the floor and resting on her arms, looks into Claxton's camera. We only see her father's legs and feet. (p. 79) Another great shot appears on page 73. McQueen is embracing the family cat. Finally, there's a shot of McQueen lying on a blanket in a large field. His profile is beautifully backlit. Both photographs selected for the front and back covers are fine, informal portraits as well.

This book made me remember how much I enjoyed Steve McQueen's movies and made me sad that he is no longer among us.

A wonderful work of art that captures what made Steve so charismatic and appealing. It leaves you wishing you could see more from other periods in his life. This is a book I will treasure all my life. Thank you Amazon, I would have paid ten times as much for this book. God Rest His Soul.

This book is jammed with high quality pictures of McQueen before he hit it big. He is a popular actor at this time in his life, not yet the full blown international star, and this book provides a window into his life. The best part of this book is that there's very little stereotypical posing (the cover is one of the posed shots) and it seems more of an old collection of pics that a friend pulled out a ratty shoebox--very intimate and loose. And it helps that the friend is talented. The weaker part of the book is the personal anecdotes--they're fine and insightful but brief. But you can buy a biography to fill in the blanks.

This book chronicles the life of Steve McQueen as seen with the vision of one of America's greatest photographers. Profiled recently in Vanity Fair magazine, this book will become an instant classic. These very personal pictures show a private side of McQueen that most people never knew - graciously shared from the archive of a photographer that has lived (and photographed) incredible moments of American culture.

I didn't know much about this actor. He died when I was young and it wasn't until I was older that I discovered his work on my own. I didn't learn until later that he died of complications following experimental surgery in Mexico for mesothelioma (asbestos-caused cancer).

McQueen was cool, but he was also not one to make a big deal of himself. One of my favorite photos is of him in the back of a truck after a motorcycle race, filthy (yet happy) and enjoying a beer. But there are many, many sweet and sincere photos in this book. Yes, it is a finite and relatively short segment of his life that has been captured on film, but it is an important time.

Published by Taschen and printed in Italy. A high quality coffee table book for $14.99 (I paid $19.99!). In fact, its description as a paperback is almost misleading, since it's a "hard" (reinforced) paperback. Claxton, probably better known in jazz circles, passed away in October 2008.

A great book, considering it is of a short period in Steve McQueen's life. This is him in his prime captured by a great photographer.

What an incredible set of images from a short time span in Steve's career. The only thing is, you really want more, from other parts of his life. Everything that Steve McQueen meant to his fans and his genre of movies in the 20th century is captured here, and then some. Do not miss this book. Amazon, I would have paid ten times as much for it. I will treasure it the rest of my life. God Rest His Soul.

Very comprehensive. Show's a different side of the rough and tumble character known as Steve McQueen. Very entertaining.

William Claxton's book of photographs of Steve McQueen seems to sell primarily to men, especially automobile and motorcycle enthusiasts who consider McQueen the epitome of 60s cool. I think one factor in the actor's lasting appeal may be that he resisted the urge to "go hippie" in the 1960s. Instead of growing his hair long and going to India to find himself, McQueen remained in California, where he rode motorcycles, collected bikes and cars, drank beer, smoked a little hemp and bedded some of the world's most desirable women, including Barbara Leigh and Ali McGraw.

Perhaps part of McQueen's enduring popularity is due to the fact that his image stands in vivid contrast to the "emo boys" of our era, where we seem to uncomfortable with a healthy masculinity. It has become so bad that we have to actually import boorish Aussies in order to play roles that call for an American man rather than the 30, 40, or 50 year old (see almost any current comedy for examples) Hollywood teenager. While McQueen was always uncomfortable with fame - other than the steady stream of women it brought him - the blue-eyed actor didn't drop out until he hit middle age. After a series of divorces, McQueen spent his final years holed up in Santa Paula, preferring to spend time with his growing collection of antique motorcycles than his adoring public.

William Claxton is well known in photography circles for his photographs of the trumpeter Chet Baker, the doomed star of West Coast "Cool Jazz" with the matinee idol looks and heavy drug habit. He shot fashion spreads and created "Basic Black", the first fashion film, which starred his wife Peggy Moffitt, designer Rudy Genreich's favorite model. Claxton was also a popular magazine photographer, shooting assignments for Paris Match and Life. On one such assignment, he met Steve McQueen, who was then shooting Love With a Perfect Stranger with Natalie Wood. It was 1962 and in the wake of the films "The Magnificent Seven," "The War Lover" and "The Great Escape", the young actor was just starting to experience the white hot light of incandescent fame. Claxton and McQueen hit it off, even though the photographer was a sophisticate and McQueen was a rough around the edges reform school kid who became an unlikely movie star.

Claxton found McQueen an ideal subject because he was not self-conscious and he had an appeal for both men and women. Women seemed to be drawn to his unconventional good looks and intensity, while men found his combination of coolness, masculinity and self-confidence appealing. McQueen didn't have a large frame, or conventional leading man looks, but he was healthy and athletic and there seemed to be a sense of menace behind his steel blue eyes. As an actor, he was not a scenery chewer. He "re-acted" rather than acted and was able to convey a great deal with his face and body language rather than the histrionic approach favored by some of our modern New York actors.

After their initial meeting in New York, Claxton and his wife began spending time with McQueen and his wife Nellie in California, so the photographer had the opportunity to shoot the actor spontaneously, always using available light. Because the actor trusted Claxton, whom he called "Clax" he was able to capture McQueen in unguarded moments. The photos in this book are well framed for the photographer knew when to make the actor the center of attention and when the context was most important. Thankfully, virtually all of them were in luminous black and white. There are photographs of McQueen at work, at play with the Jaguars, Ferraris, Cobras and Triumph motorcycles that he loved and just hanging out, which is mostly what McQueen seemed to do between shoots. The book is brief and there is not a great deal of text, just notes to introduce where the shots were taken, so its not even a short biography. At times, it is still insightful. When you read in other books of how much time McQueen spent just hanging out, you wonder whether acting is simply the type of career, that, even in a more masculine age keeps men perpetual teenagers. Traditionally, men go to work each day, to grow or build things, to contribute. Do the actors search for some sort of relevance, for political significance because deep inside they feel their life is all about playing dress-up? No matter how much we enjoy film and the social significance some movies have, the fame, the yes men, the enablers, the people blowing smoke up every reality "star" or minor actor's golden ass makes it a strange career and lifestyle. That seems to eventually take a toll on many actors, even those who start out better adjusted. The friendship between McQueen and his favorite shooter did not last more than a few years as both lived busy lives, the photographer traveling to far-flung assignments and the actor to film shoots, so they gradually lost touch. So, Claxton's photographs cover a fairly brief period, but one where the actor while incredibly famous, was still able to enjoy himself among his friends.

This Taschen book, so its reasonably priced, but still beautifully produced with excellent photographic reproductions. If you are enjoy photography, are a McQueen fan, or someone who just wants to get a sense of what things were like in a particular time and place, this book is an excellent choice.

The book contains some details about mcQueen's life that only the writer knew , that give a hint about how mcQueen viewed life, danger, and speed.
but the photos are mainly advertising ones and not real life.
i would expect more on the life of mcqueen as a person and not only as an actor