A Deep Dive

Into the Pioneering Photography of Peter Stackpole on August 1 and 2, 1941

Photographer Peter Stackpole (1913-1997), was the son of artists, Ralph Stackpole and Adele Barnes Stackpole. Educated in the San Francisco Bay area and Paris, Peter Stackpole grew up under the influence of his parent’s friends and peers, Dorthea Lange, Edward Weston and Diego Rivera. Maturing in this supportive artist community, Stackpole began developing his photographic style at a young age. Stackpole’s appreciation for the hand-held camera and his developing technical expertise found a perfect subject in the construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

In 1935, twenty-five of Stackpole’s bridge photographs were exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Art. This led to several freelance projects and in 1936, when Henry Luce established his ground-breaking “picture” magazine LIFE, Stackpole was hired as one of the four staff photographers. Stackpole worked for LIFE from its founding until 1961, moving gracefully between photographing the glamorous and young in Hollywood, and the more routine lives of the laboring class, always endeavoring to present his subjects authentically.

“Stackpole’s portraiture of Hollywood stars created approachable and endearing characters, and is recognized as a pioneering contribution to “media culture,” solidifying Hollywood icons as a subject of fascination within popular culture.”

“Stackpole’s most dramatic moment happened in 1941, when he was assigned to rendezvous with Errol Flynn’s yacht Sirocco to take underwater pictures of Flynn spearing fish.”

“I used to be a kind of beach bum between assignments, but it never occurred to me to take underwater pictures,” Stackpole said. “I’d never seen an underwater camera. Fins weren’t invented yet, and face masks were few. I had a friend make up a plastic box to hold my oldest, most expendable Leica.”

“Aboard the yacht, Flynn fitted him with a pair of hand-carved wooden goggles to use underwater. Stackpole got 15 decent shots before his camera flooded [including] one shot of Flynn climbing the mast of the Sirocco.”

The photos from this shoot were not only technically and artistically masterful, they were also taken during what later proved to be the most tragically pivotal times in Errol’s career – a time he came to perpetually rue because of Miss Peggy LaRue.

— Tim