Who the Hell is Buddy Rosenberg?

He looks like your average senior citizen, sporting oversized jogging pants covering a medium sized belly and thinning grey hair. He talks with a mild Californian accent influenced by a slight Canadian twang. Buddy is a brood man fueled by self assurance and a calm stride in his step. His blue eyes light up whenever we talk of his L.A. career days and the celebrities he's known.

Today we meet at his modest house in Nelson, BC, located above the Holy Smoke shop; a place for dope smokers to chill and purchase drugs of all sorts. Buddy never got into drugs except for a few joints and one too many pizzas.

His house is engulfed in art leaving little room for his photographs. One of his favorite photographs hangs high on the wall, an old album cover that won the New York Art Directors Award in 1988. It was cutting edge at the time with a woman dressed in a suit and two more about to embrace, their lips slightly touching.

He smiles and laughs as we talk. At one time he was a celebrity among celebrities. He was a career starter and a photography icon. The days of working over 100 hours a week in bustling L.A. are long gone but the memories stay on strong. Work is still rolling in and he has moved into the digital age of shooting. His photographs continue to be unique and express his years of experience behind the lens.

What made you decide to become a photographer?

I know exactly, it was 1967 and I was living in Los Angeles. My neighbor took pictures and we were good friends. One day I said,
"Bob let's just go up to San Francisco they're having a huge demonstration against the war in Vietnam." Why don't we photograph it? But I'm not sure how to take pictures so you may have to show me a few things."
So he showed me a few things and he gave me a camera to borrow and we went up to San Francisco. There were a hundred thousand people there and it was a huge demonstration against the war. There was a kid holding a poster, it said "Stop the War in Vietnam!"
There must have been a hundred thousand people behind him and they were all talking amongst themselves except this one little ten year old kid. He was the one leading the demonstration. So I shot a picture of it. I sent it to Carp Lunge; they had a contest to show one photo that they thought represented the United States. And I won the contest. It was the only shot I ever took. First shot and I thought boy this is really easy; I want to be a photographer.
I was a school teacher at the time and so I went to Save on Drugs and I bought a used camera; a Veronica, I remember the kind. So I asked the clerk how to load the camera, he loaded the film for me and I took another picture (with the Veronica) that won an award. So I said to myself, boy this is really easy. So then I took it seriously.
A friend of mine was an actor and he said "shoot some pictures of me" because you need pictures when you're an actor. So I did some western stuff and I really loved shooting the old west. Later his agent called me in and said "Can you shoot some pictures of our clients?" I said, "I don't know because I'm not a photographer, I just did this for my friend." He said try! So, I did what they told me they wanted and it came out really well. They kept sending me people. I charged at that time $75.00 a person. They were sending me one, two people a week. It was summertime and I was off school and another agent called me and asked if I could shoot some people. I shot some people and then they started to send me one, two a week. At that time as a school teacher, I think I was clearing $299.00 a month and I said to myself, "God I'm making $300-$400 a week doing this, so I'm just going to go into it!" It took me probably three years from that point to really understand what I was doing. Then it got really busy and I was shooting up to 20 people a week. I just never went back to school. I just became a photographer.

Did you have any formal training in photography?

None, just Save On Drugs.

Were you ever interested in scenic or wildlife photography?

No, never was interested in it, I was always interested in people. You have to demonstrate what you like or what your passion is. If you have a passion for people then shoot it. You can't have a passion for both, well very few people have a passion for skiing, then trees and then people. You need to work on action or you need to work on peoples faces. I was a face photographer and I liked shooting faces.
You look around and everything's a face. I find faces really interesting. It's what you do that's in a square to make it work. How do you get the eyes to change and become more dominant? And that's what you have to learn. You have to know hypnotics. When you are shooting people you really hypnotize them. There's a sense of drawing the person into the camera.

What were your techniques for shooting people?

I would work on a sound when I'd talk to people. I would take my voice to a certain pitch and I'd know that they would listen. The higher the pitch the easier it became to bring the person into the camera. If you do that you draw the person into the lens and that's what you see. What you're shooting is yourself. Everything is of yourself, a reflection of what you think. Its how you see the person you're shooting and that reflection is yourself. When you look at the picture, it's a picture of the way you see things.

How do you feel about Film vs. Digital?

I like film because you can create with lighting, you can do the same thing basically with Photoshop, but I still think the old method is better because it makes you do it. Anything that can be done on Photoshop can be done if you know what you're doing. So why not just do it? When you do it, you learn. You don't learn from a machine, you learn from actually doing it. I think your pictures come out a little more earthy and a little more real. That's the difference. One is real and one is Photoshop. I think when you compare them, you can see a difference. I don't think it's better or worse, I just think it's different and you could use both mediums. Eventually digital will be more important than film it's just a matter of a few more years. Things will get easier. I still think you have to direct, if you don't know how to direct people, it doesn't matter what you use. It's just how you move people; you have to draw them into the lens.
You have to be committed. If you look at most pictures, they're not committed and they're just pictures. They're either pretty or surrealistic but not committed. They're not committed as a work of art, just Photoshop. It's like watching a movie, you take a great movie like The Treasurer of Sierra Madre with Humphrey Bogart and then you take a movie that's all special effects. I'd rather watch The Treasurer of Sierra Madre. Today is gimmick reel. Some of it is good but it's not great. Louis Armstrong was great. Cab Calloway, I mean you take the old singers, they're phenomenal. That's what's missing.

Where do you think photography is headed?

I think its more gimmicks. I think it's easier, people like easiness. People like to look in the camera and point and shoot. That doesn't mean you're a photographer because you know how to point and shoot. In order to make a picture come alive, you have to know how to make it come alive and that's what's missing. If you look at most pictures they're snapshots.

At what point can a person be called a "Photographer"?

In fact I asked that question on my first job with the Buddy Rich band. He was huge in the 30's, 40's, and 50's. He was a drummer. He and a guy named Gene Crooper. He was probably was one of the best drummer's that ever was. I was working with this art director for Grey advertising, I said Ron, "When do you know you're a photographer?" He said, "When you can shoot 30 rolls of film on a job, give it to the art director and say, next!, And not even ask how it came out. Then you know you're a photographer."
When you've got that much confidence then you know you've got it.

In your career, was there a moment where you felt "I've made it!"?

When my dog was in the studio sitting next to me and I said, "If you made it, you can bring your dog to work." You have to bring your dog in order to know you're confident and you own the place. Its not about money, it's about confidence of knowing where your at. I would change in $300,000 a year for $100,000 dollars a year just so I can take Barney with me, who cares. That's when you know you have made it.

Of all the celebrities that you have worked with over the past three decades, is there anyone that really stands out in your mind?

Al Green. I shot four covers for him. I thought he was the nicest guy I ever worked with. He was the most fun. We went to Universal where he performed that night and he brought me up on stage. That's the first time that I ever felt like I was a rock star. I had 50,000 people cheering and I went like this (he lifts his palms up high), and I thought wow, this is what rock'n roll is all about! I thought he was a really nice guy and I thought that Ray Charles was a really nice guy. I shot his greatest hits album.

My favorite group would be the Bob Seager band. We shot out at a railroad and the railroad cops busted us. I talked to them and said "If only we could shoot photos with you and the band, would you be o.k. with that?" The cops said sure. I did Polaroid's and gave them the Polaroid's and then they brought up trains for us. They did anything we wanted. They were great. People love to be photographed.

The most interesting group I ever shot was the Manson Family. I shot the girls for the L.A. times. They were the weirdest people I ever shot in my whole life. They all had shaved heads and they had taken a razor blade and carved X's on their heads. They were just really spooky. This was during the murder trial around 1971. They were not friendly, but I thought they were the weirdest.

One of the nicest people I ever shot was George Clooney. He was a real gentleman and down to earth guy. I shot him when he first came to town (L.A.) and he had a beard and long hair. I probably shot more actors then anyone alive. I would say I shot probably 40 - 50,000 actors. God, I can't even believe who I shot. I shot Dustin Ewe and Rick Springfield when he was an actor.

We once had a guy pull a knife on us, a guy named Michael O'gara during a shoot in Death Valley, it was 117 degrees. He was on LSD and he thought we were there to kill him. He went berserk and pulled a knife. I told him, "I'm just taking pictures and I'm not here to kill you!" I know it was hot. That was the first time I ever experienced that.

I have met some really interesting people in my life. I shot Bob Conrad, Stevie Wonder, The Pointer Sisters, Carol King, and Juice Newton. I think it was CBS who said to go out and shoot Juice in a club and there were only two or three people in the audience. I thought boy this girl is really good. She was with 2 guys and we did a sepia print, a head shot and she was wearing a low top. That was the first cover she did. She became an overnight success. It must have taken her 10 years.

One of the most beautiful people I had ever met was Janis Joplin. I never photographed her, but a friend of mine was producing the album "Pearl". He asked me if I wanted to meet a singer and he said, "This is Janice, she's from San Francisco." I sat down with her and she asked me, "You want a drink?" I said, "No I don't drink, but you go ahead." I told her she sure was my favorite. She was great.

A friend of mine in high school was a guy named Phil Spector and he was in a group called the "Teddy Bears", we had a friend Marshal. He asked me to go pick up the Bill Wyman (of the "Rolling Stones") at the airport. I had a Ferrari at that time. So I went out there and picked him up and we had 10,000 people chase us. I couldn't believe it; I didn't know people would do that. I wasn't even a photographer then, this was 1964. I was still a teacher. The only reason they had me do it was because I had a Ferrari and they wanted to make an impression. So we went up to the Whiskey and Go Go, it was the opening night on Sunset Boulevard. Mick Jagger wasn't there but the rest of the Stones were and so was the press. We had champagne.

The most interesting woman I ever shot was Suzy Quatro at the Whiskey and Go GO, and we had a great time shooting. That was one of the nights that I got into rock ‘n roll. I really understood how to shoot it. I became part of the band that night as I shot it. That was the first time it made sense to me.

I remember shooting a girl with a tiger on a poster. That sold over a million, she was the girl in Octopussy, Kristina Wayborn. She got the movie part in Octopussy from that poster. When we did the poster, the studio called me and said who is she? I said Kristina Wayborn. I think she was with this agent named Joan, so they called Joan and hired her. That's how her career started. She was exquisite. She was 5'11, Swedish, 21 years old and she was just magnificent. She still works today.

Actors are the greatest, I love actors. I think actors are talented people; you really have to know what they do to make it work. It's a lot harder than it looks. Nothing looks easier than acting and nothing is as hard. Shooting. What looks easier than putting your eye to a camera or a point and shoot and you have a picture. You actually have to photograph, it's not that easy.

Do you think photography can change the world?

Oh yeah. One picture could. Think of the picture of Vietnam that almost stopped the war, the one where the colonel is blowing the head off of a man. That was the most powerful picture of all Vietnam. What about World War 2 and putting the flag on Hiroshima. That was Joe Rosenfeld (confirm name and spelling still). That was staged. You can notice you can't see their faces. The reason was that they wanted to show that's everybody that died on that island. I'm not sure how many died, but around 38,000 marines died and 100,000 Japanese. So that represented all the people who died. That's one photograph. There are a lot of photographs in history like that and a lot of it is set up. Look at Mathew Brady the civil war photographer. People thought he shot the whole civil war. What he did do was hire the top 15 news photographers in New York and set them all over the South and North because he couldn't in those day fly to Virginia and fly back. There were no planes, so somebody else had to do the pictures. They were all set up; all the pictures were set up by the photographers. They weren't actual battle scenes because they couldn't do that. They would actually take a break and set the bodies up. Most people were killed in the civil war from the damage bullets did, from poisons and fire, burning alive. There were no doctors, but they photographed it. There are so many great photographs if you think about it. Look at the depression and some of the beautiful stuff.