Gleb Derujinsky and his wife Wallis, were killed yesterday, in a car wreck in Durango. Gleb was a friend, and a regular at the Open Shutter Gallery. I first met him when the gallery was located on 2nd Avenue, and he stood outside on a cold night telling me everything that modern photographers were doing wrong. He was never bashful about his opinions.After several years of friendship, and after doing production work on his 2004 show at the Open Shutter, I think I started to scratch the surface of his multi-faceted life. I am grateful for the portrait that I was able to take in December of 2009. When I look at it, I feel that he was starting to trust me as a photographer.
I am reposting the text from Brandon Donahue's appreciation of Gleb from Facebook. Brandon is the gallery manager at the Open Shutter Gallery. It is a very thorough description of a life fully lived. We all knew Gleb, and we will do what we can to keep his image alive.
Brandon's appreciation:
Open Shutter Gallery & the photography community have lost a great friend, Gleb Derujinsky.
Gleb was an acclaimed photographer, pilot, racecar driver, ski instructor, bicycle racer, jeweler, war hero, musician and director. When you read about Gleb’s life, it’s hard to believe one man could accomplish so many things- but after you met Gleb, you realized how larger-than-life he actually was. We will always remember Gleb’s firey sense of humor and eagerness to share his wealth of experience.
Open Shutter Gallery will be putting together a memorial service for Gleb, please contact the Gallery for more information.
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Born in 1925 in New York City, Gleb Derujinsky was taking photographs, developing and printing them by the time he was six years old, and in fact, with the help of his apartment building superintendent, built an enlarger when he was ten, using a paint can as a light source and a camera as the optical system. One of the few, if not the only teenager ever to be invited to join the New York Camera Club, Derujinsky was exposed to the great photographers of the time, such as Steichen and Steiglitz, through his membership.
Straight out of Trinity School in New York, Derujinsky was drafted to serve in World War II, reaching the rank of staff sergeant by the time he was nineteen. After the war, he obtained a GI loan in order to open his first photographic studio. He subsequently photographed for Esquire, Look, Life, Glamour, Town and Country, The New York Times Magazine, and ultimately worked almost exclusively with Harper’s Bazaar. His trip around the world for Bazaar inaugurating the Boeing 707, he photographed fashions in exotic places from Turkey to Thailand and created some of the most exciting photographs of the nineteen sixties. In the late nineteen sixties Derujinsky began directing television commercials, and became a member of the cameraman’s union and the Director’s Guild. He won the Cannes and Venice film festival awards for best direction and cinematography, as well as, the New York Art Directors award.
Gleb has raced autos and was sponsored by Ferrari America. He has flown sailplanes in cross country competition and in the late sixties and early seventies, was one of the top ten sailplane pilots in the country. He has designed and built carbon fiber bicycles for the U. S. Olympic team.
In 1976, Gleb Derujinsky moved to southwest Colorado. He opened a custom jewelry shop and, as an avid skier, eventually also became a ski instructor. He continued his passion for photography and has been continually photographing many facets of the west.
In the past, his deep interest in music led tohis photographing several jazz musicians. Gleb recently took up the playing the piano again, playing almost exclusively Chopin and a bit of boogie woogie now and then.
Davis was bigger than life.
