NEW YORK, NY.- Douglas Kirkland: Romance (Damiani Books, 2025), a new collection of work by the late Canadian-American photographer, features images of famous and anonymous couples and embodies a vision of romance that transcends generations. Kirkland is well known for iconic photographs of Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, and Coco Chanel, among many others, yet at the core of his images is a heartfelt sensitivity. As director Baz Luhrmann once said, “Douglas’ pictures have this warmth and humanity; they have romance.”
Romance features portraits of legendary couples, such as Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton; familiar faces, including Paul Newman, Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, and Princess Diana; silver screen romances from Out of Africa, Moulin Rouge! and Titanic; and some never-before-seen images. This book showcases Kirkland’s magnificent appetite for love, joy and the beauty of human connection.
Kirkland’s photographs celebrate love in all its forms—playful, tender and enduring—reflecting passion, affection and companionship across generations. As another added tribute to love, Romance is thoughtfully co-edited by Douglas Kirkland’s wife, Françoise, and his niece Sarah.
As Françoise writes in the introduction, “This book is a love letter to anyone who is as hopeless a romantic as I am.” The idea for the book came to Françoise shortly after Douglas died, when “I realized that the reason for my despair was not just missing Douglas, but the overwhelming realization that he would no longer take pictures. I wanted to crawl under a rock, but instead I spent the night looking through images which spoke to me of love, connection, togetherness. I had no idea where it would take me, but I knew I felt safe.”
Highlights of Romance include an image of Peter Sellars and Britt Ekland zooming past the Colosseum around a Roman rotary, and a joyful photo of Faye Dunaway and Marcello Mastroianni, shot during their on-set romance in A Place for Lovers. Portraits of film and television duos include Pam Dawber and Robin Williams from Mork & Mindy, and Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah from Splash. The book also includes some images of Kirkland himself, with a self-portrait during his legendary shoot with Marilyn Monroe, and a selfie of himself and Françoise, asleep in a hotel bed, as room service breakfast arrives.
Douglas Kirkland (1934-2022) joined Look Magazine in his early twenties, and later Life Magazine during the golden age of 1960’s/70’s photojournalism. Among his assignments were essays on Greece, Lebanon, and Japan, as well as fashion and celebrity work, photographing Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlene Dietrich, among others. Through the years, Kirkland worked on the sets of more than 100 motion pictures, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, 2001 A Space Odyssey, Sound of Music, Out of Africa, Titanic, Moulin Rouge!, Australia, and The Great Gatsby.
Kirkland’s fine arts photography has been exhibited all over the world, and his work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian; the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, Australia; the National Portrait Gallery in London; the Eastman House in Rochester; the Houston Center for Photography; and the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles. Among his many awards are the President’s Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Cinematographers; a Lucie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Entertainment Photography from the IPA; and an Award of Excellence from the Canadian Consul General in Los Angeles, in recognition of a lifetime of outstanding accomplishments.
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