Jeff Dunas photographed celebrities throughout the 90s and into the 2000s. The work, all made on medium format film, was published as Up Close & Personal, (Merrell, 2003). Up Close & Personal brings together his portraits of actors, actresses, musicians and film directors. The book reflects upon the meaning of celebrity as experienced by the subjects in the form of interviews with over 20 of those featured. All prints are printed in editions of 27, of which 5 are 30×40″ or larger.

“American Pictures is a project began in 1993 with a 5-week journey documenting every town on the Oregon Trail (backwards, in fact). When embarking on an expedition of this kind, one needs a subtext – and that subtext was looking for images from my childhood. I wanted to document the America I remembered from the late 50s and 60s when I was a kid. It is a composite memory composed of memories of places I went, images in our family album (a source of endless fascination) and the backgrounds from pictures published in Life and Look magazines. As I drove through the towns, I’d spot something that triggered a memory for me- and I knew there was a picture to make there.“I also realized it would be the last opportunity to take an archive of work into the next century. There were other trips (1994, 1996) that helped to complete the project.”

These images are available in editions of 27, with 7 being larger than 30×40. There are vintage 11×14 gelatin-silver prints available of many of these images as well.

Only in America will be published as a companion book to American Pictures. “This work is about the individuality of Americans; Their idiosyncratic and wonderful ways of expressing themselves. These images could only have been made in America.  While working in black and white for the earlier book, it was exceedingly difficult to photograph in color at the same time. That said- there were times when color informed the image to the extent that I would shoot both. The resulting color work was purchased by several museums very early in the life of the project and I thus embarked on three new trips crossing the United States but this time only photographing in color. The earliest image in the book was made in 1990 and the most recent, 2022.

Images from this body of work are printed in editions of 27 with 7 being 30×40 or larger.

“State of the Blues (Aperture, 1998, Konemann, 1999) began with the death of Muddy Waters and a single image I made of the legendary bluesman Hubert Sumlin shortly after. I realized that these seminal bluesmen were going to disappear and hoped to convince one of the magazines I worked for frequently to give me an assignment to document them and make portraits. Blues wasn’t really on their radar at that time (1993-4) though the House of Blues announced it would open its third venue in Los Angeles that year. I had a connection to them through Issac Hayes, whom I’d photographed in the 70s and was introduced to Nigel Shanley, then the chief evangelist for the club. I obtained permission to set up my “studio” anytime I was interested in photographing an act that would appear – and thus begun the series.“The work began to take form in mid-1995 and by 1996 I had completed nearly 100 portraits and left to document the places where the blues was born – leading to a series of documentary images that told the story of why they had the blues. I also began interviewing many of my subjects and the resulting book contains portraits, documentary images and a text woven from the interviews conducted.”

State of the Blues was designed by Michelle Dunn Marsh and originally published in an edition of 13,500 – which included 3000 soft-cover copies sold as museum catalogues at 12 American museums that presented the ensuing exhibition of the work beginning in 1998. A further 80,000 copies in three languages (German, French & English) were printed by Konemann in Germany in 1999.

The series is printed in editions of 27 with 7 being 30×40 or larger. A limited number of 11×14 and 16×20 toned, gelatin-silver prints from the original museum printing are available in addition to modern day permanent pigment prints.

In the early 2000s, my wife, Laura, a prominent landscape designer in Los Angeles, suggested I accompany her on a tour of Italy’s Renaissance gardens. Initially I wasn’t thinking of how to photograph them, as in my own words, “I photograph everything except landscape and still-lifes.” That said, Laura had been accompanying me for years on trips to photo festivals and photography galleries, which to be fair, she enjoys, thus, I agreed and began to consider how I could find my own direction for these visits. Since that first trip, we’ve visited similar aged gardens in France, Spain and elsewhere.

These images are available in editions of 37, with 7 being larger than 40 inches in length.

A limited edition 8×10″ lay-flat book with an original signed print is available. Please call the studio for more information.

The work will be the subject of a new monograph in the fall of 2025.

In 1990, my then fiancé, Laura, and I set off across the US for Vanity Fair Italia. The assignment was “postcards from America”.  The idea was for me to photograph a fashion model crossing the US – so it wasn’t fashion photography in the sense that the “model” was modeling clothing. It was to photograph the model as herself. For her – this was a first. She styled the entire production. We set off from Los Angeles in August, arriving in NYC 32 days later. We photographed day and night. Incredibly the story ran over 27 pages in the magazine. We drove a Jamboree RV, stocked with film (everything was photographed using Nikon F3 and F4 cameras), food and clothing that she acquired along the way.

Welcome to My World

I received my first Leica M camera in 1982. I immediately began making “street pictures” – carrying it everywhere. I was living in Paris at the time so naturally I found myself walking the same streets as Robert Doisneau, WIlly Ronis and Eduard Boubat to name a few. If I had to guess, I’d say street pictures from Paris are the most famous in the world. I soon found I had a tendency to approach the subject of photographing people in the streets in my own way and realized it’s a reflection of my personality. The Leica is discreet and not threatening vs. using a DSLR with a bazooka zoom. People see I’m enthusiastic when I work.  I don’t hesitate to participate in what I’m seeing before me.   These pictures are about us – humans, in the act of living their lives. I have no sociological perspective to impose on what I see. I’m not trying to make any statement or project upon what I’m seeing any political message. I’m just enjoying finding the in between moments. The ones we don’t see unless we’re really looking.

This work was printed in my wet lab in the early 90s as toned, 16×20 gelatin-silver prints. I’m working with Jeff Hengesbaugh to put the story of the fur-trade era, via these portraits and still-lifes of the astounding Hengesbaugh collection of artifacts into book form.