Gleb Derujinsky was a groundbreaking fashion photographer whose photos could be found in Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, Look, Life, Glamour, Town and Country and The New York Times Magazine in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. His photographs featured gorgeous women in beautiful clothes in exotic locales.
He and his wife, Wallis, also lived in Durango from 1976 to 2011, when they were killed in a car crash on South Camino del Rio.
In the aftermath of the crash, Gleb’s daughter, Andrea – herself an artist, jewelry designer and archivist for the Derujinsky estate – began something Gleb had started before he died – a book of his work.
After four years in the making, Andrea is ready to unveil Capturing Fashion: Derujinsky, which will be released Oct. 18.
Q: What prompted you to write this book?
A: In the process of going through Dad’s things, I began to realize that he’s made prints, that he’s got other things going on, and it dawned on me that he’s working on a book. And knowing my dad so well, when I started finding all these major clues, I was like, “OK, this is how he wants to lay it out, this is how he envisions it,” and I literally looked up to the ceiling – to the heavens – and said, “Dad, I will pick up from where you left off.”
Q: How many pictures made the cut?
A: I wrote for 500, or close to 500, and we got 200 in this book. I had to write for all 500 primarily because I didn’t know which images would translate and which ones wouldn’t, or what sizes they would be able to use on different images. So I wrote for all of them and then gave the publisher all of them that I loved, and then they whittled it down because it was too hard for me, to be honest with you. I mean, I try to say I have a top 40 list – it’s almost impossible for me to stay within the top 40 because there’s always 41 through 50 and 50 through 60, and I’m like, “Oh my God, how could I have left that one out?!” because the pictures are really beautiful.
Q: Do you have a write-up in the book or is it mostly photos?
A: I wrote the whole thing. (Included in the book are also contributions from people who knew Gleb.) I remember standing in this fantastic, beautiful piece of green grass overlooking the mountains, and the sky and the clouds in beautiful Durango with my dad’s phone book, and I started calling people and letting them know that he had passed. So I start making these phone calls, and I said, “Do me a favor if you can: In my entire lifetime, everybody’s had a Gleb story.” I said, “Can you send me yours? It could be two or three sentences, it could be a paragraph, it could be a page – whatever you want to tell me. Just tell me your Gleb story. I want to hear it. And Dad was working on a book, and if I can, I’ll include it in the book.” So lo and behold, I have stories from everybody and they’re in the book. ... It makes it very beautiful in the sense that it’s not just a photography book or a fashion book, but it briefly tells a story of the man.
Q: If there’s one thing that we should know about your dad, what do you think it would be as far as this book is concerned?
A: He takes you places. These photographs, I mean the quote Bruce Clerke said to me, and is the most truth about his photography, is that Avedon shot women wearing the clothes, Gleb shot women living in them. This is a journey. When you go through this book, you’re not looking a fashion alone, you are on a trip. From page one to the last page, you have gone on a trip. There’s no way that you won’t turn this book over again and again and again because you’re like, “Wait a minute, I missed something here.” ... You go from one amazing place to another with these women wearing beautiful clothes. It’s really pretty.
katie@durangoherald.com
Get your copy
Capturing Fashion: Derujinsky, by Andrea Derujinsky (text) and Gleb Derujinsky (photographs), $80, is available for pre-order at Maria’s Bookshop, 960 Main Ave. For more information, call 247-1438.
