S DAS SCHWIMMBAD, 1980 CLOSE–UP, 2002 RACHEL WEISZ

ALL PICTURES: THE ESTATE OF BOB CARLOS CLARKE/WWW.PANICPICTURES.NET. THIS PAGE, TOP RIGHT: PAUL PLEWS
S
ubversive, voyeuristic, controversial – words
used again and again to describe the sexually
charged photographs taken by Bob Carlos
Clarke, who died suddenly in March, aged
55. He was known for photographing stars
such as Jerry Hall, Rachel Weisz and Jodie
Kidd, but he was just as keen to work with
unknown teenage girls he spotted in the
street. Advertising agencies also sought him out, knowing
he would bring something intriguing to their campaigns.
His work was just one facet of what appeared to be a
charmed life: a stable domestic setup with his wife, Lindsey
Rudland, a former model; aristocratic breeding; his own
good looks and entertaining manner. Yet Carlos Clarke,
particularly towards the end of his life, was experiencing
personal difficulties that even close friends seemed unaware
of. In early March he admitted himself to the Priory, the
private psychiatric hospital in southwest London. On
March 25 he left the hospital – which, as a voluntary
patient, he was free to do. From there he took a short walk
36 to a level crossing in Barnes where, witnesses say, he stepped
36 The Sunday Times Magazine 14th May 2006
DAS SCHWIMMBAD,
1980
Carlos Clarke amalgamated
three elements for the picture
above: the model Jilly Johnson,
photographed in his Earls Court
studio; the swimming pool at
the Hôtel Splendid in Cannes;
and a brooding Irish skyline
CLOSE–UP, 2002
Right: this provocative shot of a
model’s mouth was one of a
series Carlos Clarke took that
features in his book Shooting
Sex: The Definitive Guide to
Undressing Beautiful Strangers
Carlos Clarke at work in Battersea,
south London, in 2004. Rubber was
one of his fascinations from the 1970s
in front of a Waterloo-bound train. An inquest into his
death has been opened and adjourned until a later date.
Carlos Clarke was born in Kinsale, County Cork, and
was sent to board at Wellington College in Berkshire,
where a vexed housemaster wrote in a school report:
“Robert is not a clever boy and has not made the best of his
time at Wellington. He would do well to put more thought
into goals and waste less time on girls and guitars.” There
was no chance he’d give up the girls – they would preoccupy
him for decades to come. He studied photography at
Worthing College of Art and at the London College of
Printing, where he met a man known as “the Commander”
who published a quarterly magazine for fans of rubber wear.
Carlos Clarke was fascinated: “I devoted the following
decade to shooting women in high heels, and got myself
thoroughly rubber-stamped with a reputation that became
something of an embarrassment a decade later, when pink
rubbery party dresses became synonymous with bottleblonde bimbos and provincial sex shops.”
Carlos Clarke graduated from the Royal College of
Art in 1975 with an MA in photography. Jilly Johnson, a
RACHEL WEISZ, 1996
Carlos Clarke had known
the actress Rachel Weisz (right)
since she was 14, and they
remained good friends.
This photograph of her in a
latex suit was taken before
Weisz became widely known
37
14th May 2006The Sunday Times Magazine
37