Autumn de Wilde (born October 21, 1970) is an American photographer and film director most notable for her portraiture and commercial work photography of musicians, as well as her music video works. In 2020 she directed her first feature film, Emma.
Early life
De Wilde was born on October 21, 1970, in Woodstock, New York.[1] Her father, Jerry de Wilde, is an art and commercial photographer most noted for his photos of Jimi Hendrix and other musicians at the Monterey Pop Festival, and other icons of the 1960s.[2] She was raised in Los Angeles, California, with her younger brother.[3]
Autumn de Wilde initially intended to go into theater. When performing political theater for Lollapalooza in 1995, she experienced heat stroke. Beck allowed her to cool off in his tour bus. Using the skills she'd learned from her father, she took pictures of Beck, who then encouraged her to pursue photography.[5]
Through Beck she was able to meet Elliott Smith, with whom she become close. He also complimented her work, and encouraged her to go into directing by telling his crew that if she did not direct his music videos, he simply would not do them.[5] In 2007 Chronicle Books released a book, Elliott Smith, that includes de Wilde's photographs of Smith.
In 2010, de Wilde provided commentary on a series of reissues of the back catalog of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, appearing in the accompanying documentaries entitled Do You Love Me Like I Love You.
In 2011, her work was extensively featured in the limited edition deluxe box version of The Decemberists' album The King Is Dead. It included her one-of-a-kind Polaroid photograph from the Impossible Project/Decemberists series, and a 72-page hardcover book with over 250 of her Polaroid photos and illustrations by Carson Ellis.
De Wilde was married to drummer Aaron Sperske. Footage from their wedding appeared in the music video for "By Your Side" by Beachwood Sparks.[15] Their daughter, Arrow de Wilde, is the lead singer for the Los Angeles–based band Starcrawler.[5]
De Wilde has arthritis necessitating the use of a cane. Her current cane is styled after one owned by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec that holds a shot of whiskey and an accompanying shot glass, found in a London umbrella shop by asking for their "weirdest cane".[5]
