Artist Howard Terpning was born in Illinois and grew up in the midwest. He first started drawing at the age of seven and, after serving with the U.S. Marines, he enrolled in Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. After art school, Terpning found employment as a commercial illustrator. Along with doing magazine illustrations, Terpning designed the posters of over 80 films. In 1967, he went to Vietnam as a civilian combat artist. His six Vietnam paintings hang in the National Museum of the Marine Corps. In 1974, Terpning retired from doing commercial work and devoted his time to paintings inspired by Native American history and culture. Terpning’s paintings hang in galleries around the world and he has collected over 42 awards for his work.
The photographer William Klein was born in New York but has lived in France since his late teens. He studied at the Sorbonne and began his career as an abstract painter and sculptor before moving into photography. He is best known for using unusual photographic techniques like natural light, wide-angle and telephoto lenses, and motion blur in the context of fashion photography and photojournalism. Klein has also directed several documentary and three features films. His first film, 1966’s Who Are You Polly Magoo? was one of the first films ever made about the fashion industry. Film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum has called Klein’s second film, 1968’s Mr. Freedom, “conceivably the most anti-American movie ever made.” Professional Photographer Magazine has listed Klein as the 25th most influential photographer of all time.
The artist Robert Bonfils was born in Kansas City and attended the Kansas City Art Institute where one of his teachers was the painter Thomas Hart Benton. He then served a stint in the Army before continuing his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago. Bonfils was eventually hired by the prestigious advertising firm Stevens, Hall, Biondi. Here he did illustrations for children’s books, covers for Mercury record albums, and advertisements for Miller High Life Beer. In the 1960s, Bonfils started to paint the paperback book covers that he’s best remembered for. At the height of his career, he was painting 50 covers a month.
The artist Isaac Paul Rader was born and lived in Brooklyn. He studied art in Europe and had his first museum exhibition at the age of 16. Rader is best known for being a prolific illustrator of pulp paperback covers. His work is distinguished by both an attention to detail and an emphasis on strong, seductive women. Rader was so prolific and respected that he was one of the few cover artists allowed to retain his signature on his work.
Bill Gold has been designing film posters for over 70 years and, together, his work includes the promotional campaigns for some of the most important American films since the 1940s. Gold’s posters are each designed to give their films a unique identity and, over the span of his long career, Gold’s work has reflected a wide range of trends, tastes, and approaches. In 2011, Gold came out of retirement to design the poster for Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar.
Gold has designed hundreds of posters. Below is just a sampling of his prolific career.
This artist profile is an important one to me because Carol M. Highsmith and her work are the biggest influences on my photography. If not for Carol Highsmith, I probably never would have picked up a camera.
Carol Highsmith is known as “America’s photographer” and it’s easy to see why. For the past 30 years, Highsmith has devoted her life to taking pictures in every corner of the United States and she has captured everything from small town life to the monuments of Washington D.C. Her work has inspired countless other photographers and I’m one of them.
Robert McGinnis has drawn the covers for over 1200 paperback books and has designed 40 film posters, including Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the first of the James Bond films. McGinnis is distinguished by his strong attention to detail and atmosphere. After being in the business for over 50 years, McGinnis is still designing covers for both romance novels and for the Hard Case Crime novel series.
Below are just a few examples of Robert McGinnis’s work:
Reynold Brown was a realist artist who, over the course of his long career, painted landscapes, drew paperback book covers, and illustrated articles that appeared in magazines like The Saturday Evening Post and Popular Aviation. However, Brown is best remembered for drawing and designing Hollywood film posters. From 1950 to 1970, Brown designed posters for everything from cheap horror films to expensive biblical epics. Below is just a small sampling of his work.
Though best known as the father of actor Robert De Niro, Robert De Niro, Sr. was also an important and influential artist. His paintings were influenced by both French modernism and abstract expressionism and are memorable for his expressive use of color.
Below are some of my favorite examples of his work:
Jacob Kurtzberg, known to the world as Jack “The King” Kirby, was the unappreciated artistic genius and innovator. I hold him in the same regard as the equally legendary Osamu Tezuka, kamisama no manga (god of comics)/godfather of anime/Japanese Walt Disney. Both men revolutionized their respective fields, inspired and continue to inspire many generations.
Joe Simon and Jack created Captain America (the first Avenger) and the Cap Parody, Fighting American. Kirby created Nick Fury, the Mighty Thor, Iron Man, Black Panther, the X-Men, the Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers with Stanley Lieber, known to the world as Smiling Stan Lee. OMAC, Silver Surf, Kamandi, The Last Boy On Earth, X-51, the Eternals, Devil Dinosaur, Etrigan the Demon, Challengers Of The Unknown, Kobra, and the entire Fourth World mythology were his solo creations. The King was responsible for the character design of Thundarr the Barbarian and Goldie Gold & Action Jack.
As a wee lad, I was captivated by his level of detail and imagination. Now that I am in my 30’s, I continue to appreciate his work and be perpetually in awe of how his work showed that he wasn’t afraid to dream big. I am delighted to see the Kurtzberg Legacy live on through books Godland by Joe Casey, Tom Scioli and the epic yet short-lived Jersey Gods by Glen Brunswick and Dan McDaid, and Kirby Genesis by Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross And Jackson Herbert.
Below is Mark Waid and the late Mike Wieringo’s tribute to Jack during their Fantastic Four.
Here are some examples of the King’s work.
Here are some examples of the work inspired by him.
Through the Shattered Lens