With Bruce Weber: My Education, the iconic image-maker paints a tender portrait of collaboration throughout his prolific career.
In My Education, Bruce Weber celebrates the people who made him into a photographic force. From his family and mentors in the medium to the angelic beefcakes and household icons that became muses, Weber salutes each as integral facets to his journey. He peppers the pages with insights and anecdotes (in English, French, and German), organizing his photographs thematically rather than chronologically: “[…] family, creativity, physicality, humanism, sexuality, and expression have fueled Weberʼs lifelong curiosity.” There is a fluidity and chaos to the arrangement that duly captures life’s essence.
Ostensibly a photobook, My Education is equally a diary and memoir. Words and images intermingle, painting a portrait of a man whose pictures have become ubiquitous in our visual culture. Gracing Calvin Klein campaigns and the pages of Vogue, Weber’s work is imprinted in our collective minds. Dedicated to his mentor, Lisette Model, and his wife and longtime agent, Nan Bush, it is clear this is not the story of someone who did it alone, but a champion of a collaborative ethos. Weber opens with a tender introspection: “[…] from the porch in Montauk, watching my dogs Gordy and Lucky wrestle and wreak havoc in the hydrangeas, I reflect on these years […] and feel the presence of my family so strongly.”
Family, the first collaboration in people’s lives, sets the scene. Weber vividly recounts his parents’ relationship, exploring the nuances of their dynamic and his perception as he grew older. He reflects on “[…] the simple gratitude that comes from looking at the most personal places and beloved people through a lens.” Weber’s kin, collaged together, welcomes us onto this stage of creative and personal growth. They bleed seamlessly into kinetic family portraits of celebrities: Venus Williams blowing a kiss to her sister Serena, Kate Moss lazing in bed beside her mother, a lounging Donatella Versace combing the hair of her brother, Gianni, caked in Miami Beach sand. With his camera, Weber performs a curious feat: intimacy intensifies their star power, but it strips the distance and aloofness that comes with celebrity. The effect is equalizing, humanizing.
Sofia Coppola’s office, Los Angeles, California, 1999.
Vigo Mortensen, Elihu Island, Connecticut, 2003.
Raised in Pennsylvania and educated at the New School, a young Weber earned his tutelage under the greats. Richard Avedon and Diane Arbus pointed him in the direction of Lisette Model: “Dick saw something [in my early work] that he thought Lisette would respond to.” As a fledgling artist seeking direction, Model helped Weber hone his vision through school assignments: “I think lots of young photographers can relate to that feeling of trying to find a voice and figure out a point of view.” Model encouraged Weber to look deeper than beauty; “she was much more interested in what lay beyond the surface.” This led him to photograph intriguing, often-sidelined characters, like a hustler acquaintance with rockabilly hair and a man from a leather bar with a congenital disability and a strong ego. “She showed us the value of taking a chance, because then sometimes a feeling of companionship can develop.”
Weber broke into the scene at GQ in the late 1970s, coming fully into the spotlight through his work with Calvin Klein: Christy Turlington, bathed in cool gray and draped in white, in the ‘91 Eternity campaign comes to mind. Whether his subject is a pop culture icon, a willowy supermodel, or one of his beloved Golden Retriever pups, personality—as singular as a thumb print—is key to Weber’s approach. He is never forcing a vibe or a scene; rather, he picks up the pieces already laid before him and arranges something striking. Each image is a testament not only to his talent but to the effortless sense of self his subjects bring.
Jason, Bear Pond, Adirondacks, New York, 1989.
Serena and Venus Williams, New York City, 2000.
Matt Dillon, New York City, 1983.
Sensuality, beauty, and the male form are cornerstones of the Weber aesthetic. Like gay photography pioneer George Platt Lynes and fellow Calvin Klein starmaker Herb Ritts, Weber shoots bare bodies playfully posed in sylvan settings, leaping into bodies of water in the Adirondacks and Canada, their swan-like grace almost overpowering their sexuality. These iconic shots illuminate a homoeroticism long absent from mainstream culture, capturing a softer, more vulnerable essence of masculinity.
True to the symbiotic nature of his work experience, Weber easily turns the spotlight onto his friends, colleagues, and inspirations, such as legendary Vogue editor Grace Coddington, stylist Joe McKenna, Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief Liz Tilberis, and actress Liv Ullmann. He pinpoints moments that depict them as effervescent individuals, as he would through his camera lens. Of the late model Stella Tennant, Weber says: “Being with her was like falling into the pages of a great English novel, one with a protagonist so vivid and strong that she helped me to see my role in a completely new light.”
My Education is ultimately about Weber’s artistic coming-of-age, but it is the story of many people. He captures them with a humility, spaciousness, and gratitude that allows each to shine through.
Bruce Weber: My Education is out August 2025 from Taschen. Homepage banner Stella Tennant, Versace, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1995. Homepage Madonna, New York City, 1986. Inside banner above, Kate Moss, Miami, Florida, 2003, All images courtesy of Bruce Weber.
