© Jeff Dunas

Robert Farber: I'm sitting here in an outdoor cafe in a beautiful surroundings in Tapenga, California interviewing a good friend of mine and great photographer Jeff Dunas. Jeff and I go way back, but I think Jeff goes back a little further than I.

Jeff Dunas: I'm not sure that's true but...

Robert Farber: Jeff has had quite an interesting career, been involved in publishing, has many books out, and Jeff, how did you get started in the very beginning of your career?

Jeff Dunas: I got started in the very beginning of my career photographing girls that I knew in school, actually, and submitting the photographs to Penthouse Magazine in 1972. Eventually I got started working for Penthouse and I worked with them until 74, and then I quit and went to work at Playboy where I was the staff photographer of Oui magazine for two more years.

Robert Farber: And Jeff, after that, when did you first book come out?

Jeff Dunas: Captured Women was my first book, and it was published in 1981. It was published in six languages around the world, and we sold almost 125,000 copies in hardcover, which today sounds unbelievable, but that was the case then in 1981. I had a second book that I did in 1982 called Mademoiselle, Mademoiselle. And the last book like that that I did in 1983 called Voyeur.

Robert Farber: Now when did your magazine...when did you get into the publishing business with your magazine Collector's Photography that I know I was crazy about, and so did many people who appreciated fine art nudes.

Jeff Dunas: When I launched that magazine in 1985--and it lasted until the end of 1988--and I did that magazine because I felt a lot of...I was uncontent with the quality of photographs being published in magazines for men, and I didn't want to just work for those types of magazines, but there was no other market fine nudes, and I decided to do one myself. So I started with books. I started out doing a book called Contemporary American Erotic Photography, and after that I realized I had a lot of trouble with censorship from bookstores and so forth, but those very bookstores carry Playboy and Penthouse, and I thought I'll do it in a magazine form and I'll do it better.

Robert Farber: And what about Collector's Photography--it was a wonderful magazine, and people really crave it I know, and I always hear whenever I mention Jeff Dunas, they say whatever happened to that magazine that was wonderful?

Jeff Dunas: Well the magazine I did with my own resources and I was never very successful in getting advertising from the photographic corporate world--

Robert Farber: Because of the nudes, I guess...

Jeff Dunas: Because of the nudes. I had a lot of trouble where people associated the magazine with a men's magazine and didn't want to advertise, and without advertiser support, you can't do magazines. But the magazine's intention was to publish the world's fine art photography of women. And I think that for those three years it was a really special magazine published, not just because I did it, but because when I look back at those issues now, it really had a lot of integrity. There hasn't been anything like it since.

Robert Farber: But after that, did you stay with the nudes--or what happened, where did your career go from there?

Jeff Dunas: Well I've always done nudes for myself, and I continue to do a fair amount of them, but I realize at that point in time I was going to stop trying to make a living photographing women and doing nudes. Instead, I relaunched my career as a photographer, portraits and some advertising--primarily portraits. And that's been my career since the late 80's.

Robert Farber: Thinking of that, I just saw this new edition of American Photo. You have a portrait of Cameron Diaz. Were you involved as a fashion photographer, portraits, or what?

Jeff Dunas: Actually I discovered Cameron, and the way that happened was I saw her at a party once. She was sixteen years old, and I told her to have her parents call me. They did, had a meeting with me, and I got her started as a model and that opened a lot of doors for Cameron. Then she got involved in making films as you know. The American Photo story is a cover and a number of pages inside that has an ongoing series of portraits that I do of Cameron, and that I have been doing for about ten years now.

Robert Farber:But as a whole interesting switch, what I find quite interesting is the fact that you've been working on portraits--some great portraits of famous blues artists, which led to your new book now.

Jeff Dunas: Yeah, the book is called State of the Blues, and it's published by Aperture. It's a project I began working on in 1994 and finished in 1998. The book came out at the end of 1998 last October.

Robert Farber: So you just mentioned as far as the State of the Blues, how did this book get started and where did you wind doing these portraits? How did you accumulate so many great portraits of great artists?

Jeff Dunas: State of the Blues started out like a number of my other personal projects. I just have an idea that I want to produce a body of work, and I get started on it. It kind of takes on a life of its own. In the case of State of the Blues, it began early on when the House of Blues was opened in Los Angeles. I managed to meet the people in charge of the House of Blues, and got permission to set up a portrait studio in their building and photograph some of the acts that came there. Then once I had that started, I began working in festivals all over the country, going to blues artists' homes, and having them come to my studio. At the end of five years, I had pretty much most of the major blues artists living. And that's where the book....

Robert Farber: Which leads me to ask--I want to ask you something for advice for photographers that are either just building their career or who are established but really want a direction and a goal and really try to do something with a theme or create a theme. I've always admired the drive you've had, and you're always photographing. How would you advise them to get started to do a book or a special project to get their careers a good start?

Jeff Dunas: I think photographers shouldn't be in too much of a hurry to get to the point where they do books or do these kinds of big projects. I think what it takes is maybe ten, fifteen years of shooting photographs before you start having your own point of view. When you have a own point of view, it becomes something that kind of one thing leads to another and it happens all by itself. My advice to young people, is never stop producing projects on your own, and don't wait for the phone to ring with a job. Go out and shoot ideas, go out and start photographing first, show the work to editors and publishers, and one thing will lead to another, and you'll end up doing some interesting work that the publishers haven't seen or who wouldn't have thought of hiring you for, and that's how you get started.

Robert Farber: One thing I've always found, if you do set a type of goal or an idea for a project that something might really develop or gives you more enthusiasm or something to get up in the morning and really work on...what do you think?

Jeff Dunas: I just think that if you, as a young photographer starting out, look at your world around you, look at your childhood, look at your own story first and then build from there. In order to do a personal project, one doesn't need to wait until they have money for airfare and hotels and go somewhere. You can do something usually very personal and more important for your own personal life, in your own personal area where you live and evolve in your own life. I don't know if that's clear...

Robert Farber: Well I found one thing, is people always give excuses. And I don't think I'm any different or you're any different, there's times when you say I'll only take this picture if I have this particular lens to shoot it. That's just an excuse for some other reason...

Jeff Dunas: Yeah, that's true. I think--well one thing that I do and always have done, I've worked on various projects at the same time, which is kind of a way around that. It's like a work-around. Because I have four or five projects at any one time that are kind of ongoing, and that means that I find it difficult to make excuses. I pretty much feel obliged to keep moving and keep them moving ahead.

Robert Farber: I agree with that. That's the exact way that I work it, I know many other photographers work in the same way. Because sometimes one of the projects falls through--many of the times one of the projects falls through--and you can always go ahead on the other project you're working on. You won't be as discouraged.

Jeff Dunas: People ask me often about what is--how do you get a personal style, how do you end up with a point of view and things like that. Besides the fact that you need to do this for ten or fifteen years--I think that's important, most important. The other thing you can do is take all of your favorite photographs, make prints of them, put them on the floor, and start to look at them and find out what is a common thread in this work. It will illuminate some dark areas of your mind for you.

Robert Farber: What about when photographers say, "Well I don't know what I want to do" They don't have a direction for themselves...

Jeff Dunas: What I recommend that they do is go to a library, any library, and they take pile after pile of photography books and just look through them. Every time they find a photograph they really love, they go and have a photocopy made at the library. After a day or two of that process, you go home with a pile of photocopies and you lay them out on the floor somewhere--and you look at them over a period of time, don't try to get something from them in a day or two...just leave them laid out if you possibly can. Look at them over and over until you start to see a thread, until you start to see something that makes--that moves you in those photographs, and that will give you a direction that you never imagined.

Robert Farber: When you do a shooting with a model, do you have something preplanned?

Jeff Dunas: I think the important thing, when you're going to go into a session, whatever it is--whether it's photographing a woman, some nudes, a portrait--is to have a point of view already thought out and have a direction of where you want to go with that picture first. And then go and execute that picture first. Afterwards, you'll find that other things develop, other things present themelves. You'll find new inspiration, new directions to take it. But it's always helpful to go in with a specific idea with a specific point of view so that you're for sure going to come out of that shooting with something valuable.

Robert Farber: And what percentage of your final shots wound up to be the one you originally thought of--or what percentage are from the impulsive...

Jeff Dunas: I think it's probably fifty fifty, but the surprise pictures that I manage to get would not have happened had I not had a specific agenda. Often times, for example, I'll have maybe half an hour to make a portrait of somebody--if you go into that session with no real concrete idea what you're going to do, and you just generally work around, you're not going to have anything very interesting. But if you have a very specific idea, you go in and nail that first, then you see if there's a good vibe and a good energy and something comes out of it.

Robert Farber: Do you prefer shooting in the studio or on location? Available light or natural light?

Jeff Dunas: I like it all. I wouldn't say I have a preference.

Robert Farber: What format do you like working in best?

Jeff Dunas: I work with 6 X 7 I work with Mamiya RZ cameras almost 80 percent of the time and when I do 35 mm photography I use Leicas.

Robert Farber: Why do you prefer the larger format...or medium format?

Jeff Dunas: It's not that I prefer it...the Leica camera system is pretty amazing. There's several different bodies of work I use only the Leica for. I find that I shoot different pictures with that camera. But when...in general I use 6 X 7 because I do all my own printing, and I do value the larger negative.

Robert Farber: Have you got involved in digital imaging--first let me ask you have you got involved with digital photography?

Jeff Dunas: Only to the extent that I digitize my work to maintain my website. I haven't really ever done a job where the intent was to use digital photography.

Robert Farber: And by the way, what's your website address?

Jeff Dunas: It's www.dunas.com

Robert Farber: And how about as far as digital imaging and the idea of the desktop darkroom and printing your images digitally.

Jeff Dunas: Well I have to say that only until very recently was I seeing really surprising results in the digital realm. I must say that I rather discounted digital photography until recently, but I'm beginning to give it a second look.

Robert Farber: It's very true for me to, the same way now I'm giving it more than a serious look--I'm really into it. And it is amazing how photographers are really changing their mind, day after day right now there are just more and more people are into the digital medium. But of course, as far as printing in a darkroom--I know you spend a lot of time there, your prints are beautiful. Archival inks are being developed that are really going to give traditional photography a run for the money. However I really feel strongly that digital photography will never just eliminate the traditional form, it will only make it stronger...do you agree with that?

Jeff Dunas: Yeah, I think probably 90 percent of the work that will be done in photography will probably be done digitally in the future. There will always be a market and a demand for fine prints on traditional fiber paper, I believe. Because in the fine art world I don't think you're going to see any kind of evolution toward digital output as a replacement for gelatin and silver prints.

Robert Farber: Well, Jeff, you've given us a great insight into your career and I want to thank you on behalf of the members of the workshop for doing this interview.

Jeff Dunas: If they have any questions that don't take a great deal of lengthy answers, I would be glad to respond to some questions directly--just email me. It's jrdphoto@dunas.com

Robert Farber: Well thank you, Jeff, and continued success.

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