Jerry "Dok" de Wilde, 1969
Jerry de Wilde
Jerry, aka "Dok," was born on January 1st, 1938 in Brooklyn, NY, where he lived until he left to attend college at Columbia University in 1955. After graduating Columbia with a degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1959, he moved west to Los Angeles in the spring of 1960. He then enrolled in the Theater Academy at Los Angeles City College to study acting, directing and producing. In 1964, after appearances in several plays and a few TV shows, he was introduced to fine art photographer Robert Frank.
Robert was on the West Coast with Conrad Rooks shooting scenes for their feature "Chappaqua." Jerry was hired to find locations in Big Sur, as well as be Robert's camera assistant and production coordinator. He also had the unique opportunity to shoot some stills for the movie. Robert Frank invited him to come to New York and assist Robert on his film "Me and My Brother" featuring Julius and Peter Orlovsky and Allen Ginsburg. In that time, Robert, as friend and mentor, encouraged Jerry to think about photography not so much as pretty pictures but rather to expand his thinking and reflect on what his pictures were about.
Upon returning to Los Angeles in late spring of 1965, he and friend, Anton Greene, an artist and filmmaker, rented the old 46 acre Barham Ranch in the hills above Warner Bros. Studios. Over the next 7 to 8 years it became known as "The Farm," a creative environment that was a notorious haven for actors, writers, musicians, artists, designers, filmmakers and poets with something to say.
In the fall of 1966 he moved into a small cabin in Big Sur to simplify his life and emerged the next spring to work in production on the Monterey Pop Festival. Using "The Farm" as a home base, he traveled around the country and Europe photographing Art Happenings, Love-Ins, Anti-War demonstrations, and the Counter Culture of the late 60's and early 70's.
He met his wife Mary in London, England, and they were married in late 1969 in Los Angeles. Their daughter, Autumn, was born in 1970 in Woodstock, NY and son Jacob was born in Los Angeles in 1973.
In the mid 70's he began shooting production stills and specialty photography on films and TV commercials for directors and cinematographers like Melvin Sokolsky, Tony Scott, Ridley Scott, Vilmos Zsigmond, Tim Newman, and Allen Daviau to name a few. His client list includes Chrysler, Dr. Pepper, Coca-Cola, Budweiser, IBM and Fosters Beer among many others.
In 1992 he was invited to be an associate professor of fine art photography at Woodbury University where he taught for 7 years. Most recently he has been photographing and printing large and medium format black and white abstract landscapes shot mostly in the American Southwest and Scotland.