American photographer Gary Krueger attributes his success to luck, chalking it up to an undeniable knack for being at the right place at the right time. After graduating high school in 1963, Krueger hopped in his 1954 Ford and drove west from his native Cleveland, Ohio, to Los Angeles to study graphic design and photography at Chouinard Art Institute, which later became the fabled California Institute of the Arts.
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“I was one of four people in the ‘60s who didn’t take drugs that went to art school. I was the casual observer of what was going on,” Krueger says. “I’ve always had a camera, Brownie Starflash, but it was never anything serious. After I got into Chouinard, I made one print in the darkroom and went, ‘This is fucking magic!’ It knocked me out.”
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After graduating in 1967, Krueger got a job working at the ‘Imagineering’ division of Disney to photograph the park and its events. “After six months, I decided I’m going to be a photographer,” he remembers.
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Krueger quickly struck gold when he landed a cover for West magazine. “I got $250. Well, it might as well have been a million dollars! This is 1967. To give you an idea, gasoline was 11 cents a gallon. My rent was $55 a month.”
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