Terry deRoy Gruber is an American photographer, author and filmmaker.

Terry deRoy Gruber
Alma materVassar College
OccupationPhotographer
Notable workWorking Cats
Fat Cats
Cat High: The Yearbook

Early life

edit

Terry Gruber’s mother, Aaronel deRoy Gruber, was a professional artist.[1] Growing up in Pittsburgh Pa., Gruber attended Vassar College, during its second year of coeducation where he served as an editor-in-chief of The Vassarion, the college’s yearbook. His position on the yearbook became national news when his freedom of speech was censored in 1975 by the College,[2] before becoming reinstated.[3]

Photography career

edit

Terry Gruber is the founder of Gruber Photographers Inc, where he is leader of a team of photographers,[4] and works in fine arts photography.[3] Gruber also works as a banquet photographer[5] and wedding photographer,[6] and has served as the photographer for the weddings of public figures such as Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones;[4] and Billy Joel and Katie Lee.[7] The Bridal Council stated that Gruber was “one of the first reportage photographers to bring a fashionable, spirited eye to the … world of wedding photography”.[8] Magazines that have published his photos include Vogue, Town & Country, and Vanity Fair.[4] He has also commented on trends in wedding photography in articles for newspapers including the New York Times.[9]

In 2022 his work was shown as a part of the "2022 Alternative Processes" exhibition at the Soho Gallery.[10] He often works with traditional banquet photography cameras original to the 1920s, made by the company Folmer and Schwing. Specifically, he told PetaPixel in 2022 that "For an indoor shot, I have a 14-inch (~350mm) and 16-inch (~400mm) threaded lens with a Packard shutter with a lemon which is an air squeeze black bulb [for keeping the shutter open] ... For an outdoor shot with flashbulbs for fill light, I use a lens with a shutter — a 14-inch Goerz Dagor with a Copal shutter."[11]

Film career

edit

As a filmmaker, his 1989 work Not Just Any Flower, made under thesis advisor Martin Scorsese while attending Columbia Film School, is in the permanent film collection of the MoMA in New York[12] and won a Student Emmy Award for Best Comedy.[13] In 1990 he worked as the still photographer on the film Men of Respect.[14]

Books

edit

Books of photographs by Gruber include Working Cats (1979), Fat Cats (1981), and Cat High: The Yearbook (1984).[4] Working Cats features cats who live in working environments, that were recruited from local owners for the book.[15] Using his past experience with yearbooks Gruber created Cat High in 1984 as Paw Prints, the yearbook of a cat high school in Paw Paw, a spoof on yearbooks that had senior cats (and one dog) pose as graduates with mortarboards and other outfits. The title was re-released by Chronicle Books in 2015.[16] His book Getting Married, 30 black and white postcards was published in 1996 by Merckendorf & Beamer.

References

edit
  1. ^ "My View: DeRoy Just Doesn't Mean Broadway Openings". Times Square Chronicles. 9 May 2016.
  2. ^ "Removal of Yearbook's Editor Spurs Vassar Demonstration". 3 April 1975 – via NYTimes.com.
  3. ^ a b "Pet Tales: The Cat Yearbook from Paw Paw High". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
  4. ^ a b c d "Terry de Roy Gruber". old.post-gazette.com.
  5. ^ Mallozzi, Vincent M. (21 October 2011). "Banquet Photos Put Everyone in the Picture - Field Notes" – via NYTimes.com.
  6. ^ Levine, Alexandra S. (25 January 2016). "New York Weddings Blanketed in White" – via NYTimes.com.
  7. ^ Yara, Susan. "Wed Like A Celeb". Forbes.
  8. ^ "10 Questions with Photographer, Terry Gruber". The Bridal Council.
  9. ^ Brady, Lois Smith (2003-11-23). "For Gay Couples, New Rituals at the Altar". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-05-12.
  10. ^ "2022 Alternative Processes Competition Winners, Juror Ann Jastrab | Soho Photo Gallery". Retrieved 2023-05-12.
  11. ^ Mistry, Phil (2022-07-03). "Banquet Camera: The Early-1900s Tool for Photographing Large Groups". PetaPixel. Retrieved 2023-05-12.
  12. ^ "Terry deRoy Gruber - MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art.
  13. ^ "Terry DeRoy Gruber". IMDb.
  14. ^ "Terry DeRoy Gruber". IMDb. Retrieved 2023-05-12.
  15. ^ "Cat books". Vol. 6. American Photographer. 1981. p. 244.
  16. ^ Erickson, Christine. "In the '80s, they put cat heads on human bodies without Photoshop". Mashable.