The late Julian Wasser had unprecedented access to stars at their most unguarded
JACK & ANJELICA 1974 Nicholson and Huston met the year before at a party for his 36th birthday and dated on and off for 17 years. They were photographed for Stern at Nicholson’s home on Mulholland Drive. (Julian Wasser/Courtesy of Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, Calif.)
Jennifer Laski is an Emmy-winning photo and video producer, and director, based in L.A.
Private and candid moments with Hollywood royalty caught on camera are rare today in this age of everything-is-perfect Instagram, TikTok, and publicist restrictions. But in an earlier era, Los Angeles photographer Julian Wasser straddled the worlds of journalism and the bohemian-celebrity era of the 1960s and 70s with ease. He died at the age of 89 on Feb. 8 in L.A., having led a life behind the camera of unprecedented access. His secret? “My dad always had a camera on him. We had this Ryan O’Neal-Tatum O’NealPaper Moon-esque relationship where we were sidekicks and I would be his assistant and carry his bags,” says his daughter, actress and producer Alexi Celine Wasser. “He was granted access because he was on assignment but the reason he got the shot is, he was always paying attention, and he knew when to get the shot.” He was also fearless. “He was an old-timey-back-east-kind-of-guy, born in Philadelphia but grew up in the Bronx, and he would just use phrases, like when he was trying to tell me something that would toughen me up, ‘That’ll put hair on your chest, man.’ He was a great dad.” (Wasser is also survived by a son, James.)
Though Wasser would accept assignments, often from Time magazine, he also was a consummate hustler — using a police scanner and his gift of gab to put himself in the middle of the action. Which didn’t detract from his artistry. Craig Krull of Santa Monica’s Craig Krull Gallery represented Wasser for more than 30 years, and says of one famous image, “Though Julian often sarcastically joked that his photo of Marcel Duchamp playing chess with a nude Eve Babitz was made just so he could see her boobs, the photo was actually a stroke a genius. It has become one of the most recognized images of staged conceptual photography of the 20th century.” (The picture is among those shown below.)
David Geffen, Elton John, Carly Simon, James Taylor, 1974
On the scene in L.A. “My dad was a very curious person. He loved talking to people and was unselfconscious. And he talked to everybody and had this bigger than life personality,” says Wasser's daughter. (Julian Wasser/Courtesy of Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, Calif.)
Alexi’s favorite photo of her father’s is “Jack and Anjelica Huston running around their house and there’s a record player. It’s fun and sexy and then in the background, Jennifer Nicholson is like a little girl in the background. You can see and it’s funny because we are friends on Instagram now. ‘I’m like, oh my God, is that you?’”
Jane Fonda, 1973
The then-pregnant actress and activist demonstrating two years after winning her first Academy Award for Klute. (Julian Wasser/Courtesy of Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, Calif.)
On assignment for Time, Wasser photographed Michael Jackson (far left) at 12 with his brothers at their Encino, Calif. home. The group celebrated its first number one hit “I Want You Back” in 1970. (Julian Wasser/Courtesy of Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, Calif.)
Robert F. Kennedy, 1968
The then-presidential candidate at the Ambassador Hotel in L.A., shortly before he was killed by Sirhan Sirhan. “Though he often put himself in the eye of the firestorm, as in his intense images of the Watts Riots, his unflinching nerve was at least once caught off-guard when he fainted at the sound of gunshots at RFK’s assassination,” says Krull. (Julian Wasser/Courtesy of Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, Calif.)
The star danced at the famed Whisky a Go Go, where there were no VIP sections, no security and “you could just walk right up and take their picture. It was a real innocent time,” Wasser said in 2014. (Julian Wasser/Courtesy of Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, Calif.)
The Charlie’s Angels Cast, 1976
David Doyle, who played Bosley, with stars Jaclyn Smith, Farrah Fawcett and Kate Jackson the year the show launched. It was a top 10 hit in the Nielsen ratings for two seasons and aired for a total of five. (Julian Wasser/Courtesy of Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, Calif.)
The legendary activist and If Beale Street Could Talk author and essayist on the Black experience in America, in Los Angeles. (Julian Wasser/Courtesy of Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, Calif.)
Linda and Paul McCartney, Cher, Greg Allman, Bob and Sara Dylan, 1976
Music royalty gathered in Los Angeles for a party for Rod Stewart. (Julian Wasser/Courtesy of Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, Calif.)
One of his most iconic photos was an assignment for Time. Wasser photographed Didion in front of her yellow Corvette Stingray just after Slouching Towards Bethlehem was published. He shot only two rolls of film because “he knew he had it,” said Griffin Dunne, Didion’s nephew and director of the Joan Didion documentary, The Center Will Not Hold. (Julian Wasser/Courtesy of Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, Calif.)
“I am in charge of his estate now, of his archive, so I am aware of everything he has ever taken photos of and there’s some photos that haven’t been used even of Joan Didion by the Corvette,” says daughter Alexi. “There is this sinewy, willowy-esque (pose), she’s smoking a cigarette and there’s smoke in front of her face. It’s like a really sexy, cool photo, a version of that shoot that maybe people haven’t seen.”
Natalie Wood, Marilyn Monroe, 1962
Wood and Monroe on a contact sheet from the Golden Globes. Wood was nominated for best actress in Splendor in The Grass; Monroe was honored with the Henrietta Award for World Film Favorites. (Julian Wasser/Courtesy of Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, Calif.)
Writer and art groupie “It Girl” Eve Babitz played chess with Dada-ist Marcel Duchamp. Art circles legend has it Babitz was trying to make her married boyfriend Walter Hopps, curator of the Pasadena Art Museum, jealous. (Julian Wasser/Courtesy of Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, Calif.)
The icon speaking in L.A., photographed for Time. That same year, the civil rights activist gave his now-iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. (Julian Wasser/Courtesy of Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, Calif.)
Robert Evans and Mia Farrow, 1967
On the set of Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby for Time. Wasser’s daughter says, “He made me watch tons of movies, maybe films I shouldn’t have seen at such a young age, but I am such a cinephile now because of my dad. He just loved movies and even on his last days, we would just watch movies together.” (Julian Wasser/Courtesy of Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, Calif.)
Andy Warhol, Irving Blum, Billy Al Bengston, Dennis Hopper, 1963
Together at the opening reception of the Duchamp Retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum. (Julian Wasser/Courtesy of Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, Calif.)
David Bowie and Rodney Bingenheimer, 1972
The singer with the Los Angeles radio disc jockey and nightclub owner. (Julian Wasser/Courtesy of Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, Calif.)
A portrait of the young photographer. “He was a cool, interesting, complicated, funny guy,” says Alexi. “We have been kicked out of many restaurants, for him being too over the top, but at the end of the day he’s a talented, one-of-a-kind character. And that breed of person is dying out so I am grateful that I got to be holding his hand when he was in hospice, and took his last breath.” In his final moments, “I promised him, I don’t know if he could hear me, but I just said to him… I am going to (be) taking over his archive… make his photos known even more.” (Julian Wasser/Courtesy of Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, Calif.)
