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Le Journal de la Photographie
Helen Twelvetrees Photographed by Edward Steichen
Jack Woody's Twelvetrees Press,
named for his grandmother, early Hollywood movie star Helen
Twelvetrees (above), includes her beautiful portraits in his exquisitely
printed book, Lost Hollywood,
along with Lillian Gish, Jean Harlow, Charlie Chaplin, Theda Bara,
Erich von Stroheim, Greta Garbo, and Rudolf Valentino by photographers
George Hurrell, William Mortensen, Clarence Sinclair Bull, and Edward
Weston.
Jack Woody's Grandparents
Film star Helen Twelvetrees and Frank Woody, actor and stuntman in John Ford movies, 1933. From
1929-1939, Twelvetrees starred in movies with Spencer Tracy, Clark
Gable and John Barrymore. Her initials “HT” are still inset in stained
glass above the original front door of her Brentwood home on Mulholland
Drive and Outpost, now home to a current movie star.
"Walk of Fame Star" on Hollywood Boulevard © Stefano Paltera
Robert Mapplethorpe, Self Portrait, 1984
(Twin Palms 1985)
(Twin Palms 1985)
"...the Robert Miller Gallery did an
exhibition of George Platt Lynes prints and after the exhibition they
gave a big party. A guy comes up to me, all in black leather, and
starts talking to me. It was Robert Mapplethorpe. He said he really
loved the book, thought it was great and wanted to know if I’d be
interested in working with him on a book...We ended up doing a book
together, “Certain People: A Book of Portraits by Robert Mapplethorpe",
with gravure plates printed in Spain. He’s on the front cover in
leather and the back cover in drag. Susan Sontag wrote the text."
"Matt Mahurin’s book was the ultimate book for gravure printing. That’s a beautiful book. Beautiful, rich, dark – there’s a whole school of people who copy his work now."
Disfarmer: 1939-1946 Heber Springs Portraits
(Twin Palms 1996)
"The first book I published was Christopher Isherwood’s beautiful journal called “October” (Twelvetrees, 1980). Don Bachardy, Christopher Isherwood’s lover, was a portrait painter. He did a portrait everyday in the month of October, and every day Christopher would do a journal entry, so we paired each journal entry with Don’s portraits of Gore Vidal, Joan Didion and everybody who was anybody in L.A. Then I found a little printer in the valley, Cunningham Press. A couple of old guys ran it and took pity on me. That was about 1978 or 1979."
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