Oral history interview with Ed Chappell, 2015

Biographical Note

Ed Chappell is a photographer based in Florida, who worked with Robert Rauschenberg beginning in the early 1990s

Scope and Contents

Photographer and friend of Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Chappell reveals an interior view into the life and work of Robert Rauschenberg in the context of his increasing age and failing health from the early 1990s onward. Chappell describes his relationship to Rauschenberg chronologically, and there is a real sense of growing closeness between the two. Chappell talks through the relationship as it progresses from a photo shoot for a local magazine to eventually becoming Rauschenberg's primary photographer. Chappell became a mainstay at Captiva and a member of Rauschenberg's entourage in some of his later travels. He talks at length about Rauschenberg's use of photos. Chappel provides an intimate narrative about Rauschenberg's declining health and the impact of the stroke. As Rauschenberg grew older and companion Darryl Pottorf became more incapacitated, Ed talks about how he became a very close friend to him. He provides a touching and candid observation on Rauschenberg's later years, and his ongoing drive to work. He also briefly comments on the lawsuit and some of the fallout in the years since Rauschenberg’s death

Subjects

• Artistic collaboration.
• Artists--Interviews.
• Captiva Island (Fla.)
• Chappell, Ed--Interviews.
• Interviews.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Photographers--Interviews.
• Pottorf, Darryl.
• Rauschenberg, Robert, 1925-2008.
• Vanderscoff, Cameron interviewer.

Access Conditions

Copyright by Ed Chappell, 2015. The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York hold a non-exclusive license to enable library activities