Tom Leutwiler
Encyclopedia
Tom Leutwiler was an internationally renowned sailing photographer, whose work graced the covers of Yachting
and Yacht Racing magazines, and was published in Time
, Sailing World, Seahorse
(England), Voile et Voiles (France) and others for nearly two decades. His dry sense of humor would become as much a part of the Leutwiler trademark as his photography.
As founder of Leutwiler Photography, Leutwiler captured entrancing moments in sailing with his Hasselblad
cameras and produced calendars, sold coast-to-coast, from 1979 to 1990. His aerial photographs have been prominently displayed by thousands of customers, including CBS News
, NBC News
, Turner Broadcasting, DuPont
, the Audubon Society, E.F. Hutton, Hewlett Packard, Warner Communications
, the U.S. Senate and United States House of Representatives
, and the White House.
to Charles and Virginia Leutwiler, and his heritage traces back to the Leutwil
municipality of Switzerland.
Leutwiler grew up in Glendale, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and at the age of 14, he attained the rank of Eagle Scout
, the highest rank possible. He graduated from Kirkwood High School
in 1966 and participated in the School Newspaper, Chemistry Club, Biology Club, and German Club.
He majored in business at University of Tulsa
and Washington University, and served as Vice-President of Sales and President of Junior Achievement
. Before founding his own business, Leutwiler held a variety of sales positions at the Fuller Brush Company
, and Allied Radio
.
and Danvers, Massachusetts
with his wife and two stepsons Matt and Adam. He operated Leutwiler Photography from home, and members of the family often appeared in the quarterly Shooting the Breeze newsletter and assisted in running the business.
cameras. He slowly began to find his market, selling his photographs primarily to sailboat owners, crew members, boat manufacturers, sailing magazines, and calendars published by magazines. In a 1987 interview with the St. Louis Post Dispatch, he compared his niche to "selling paper clips to General Motors".
, which many sailors felt was the best action photograph of the period. It appeared as the cover of Yacht Racing Magazine in April 1976, and played a critical role in the building the recognition of the Leutwiler brand name. Wham Bam, Sunset, Tweety, Lonely Sea, and Condor were also published around this time and all became cornerstones of Leutwiler Photography.
Yachting
Yachting refers to recreational sailing or boating, the specific act of sailing or using other water vessels for sporting purposes.-Competitive sailing:...
and Yacht Racing magazines, and was published in Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, Sailing World, Seahorse
Seahorse
Seahorses compose the fish genus Hippocampus within the family Syngnathidae, in order Syngnathiformes. Syngnathidae also includes the pipefishes. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek hippos meaning "horse" and kampos meaning “sea monster”.There are nearly 50 species of seahorse...
(England), Voile et Voiles (France) and others for nearly two decades. His dry sense of humor would become as much a part of the Leutwiler trademark as his photography.
As founder of Leutwiler Photography, Leutwiler captured entrancing moments in sailing with his Hasselblad
Hasselblad
Victor Hasselblad AB is a Swedish manufacturer of medium-format cameras and photographic equipment based in Gothenburg, Sweden.The company is best known for the medium-format cameras it has produced since World War II....
cameras and produced calendars, sold coast-to-coast, from 1979 to 1990. His aerial photographs have been prominently displayed by thousands of customers, including CBS News
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
, NBC News
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
, Turner Broadcasting, DuPont
DuPont
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont was the world's third largest chemical company based on market capitalization and ninth based on revenue in 2009...
, the Audubon Society, E.F. Hutton, Hewlett Packard, Warner Communications
Warner Communications
Warner Communications or Warner Communications, Inc. was established in 1971 when Kinney National Company spun off its non-entertainment assets, due to a financial scandal over its parking operations and changed its name....
, the U.S. Senate and United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
, and the White House.
Action shots, calendars, and humor
A collection of Leutwiler classic action shots and trademark humor:Early life
Leutwiler was born in St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
to Charles and Virginia Leutwiler, and his heritage traces back to the Leutwil
Leutwil
Leutwil is a municipality in the district of Kulm in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland.-History:Leutwil is first mentioned in 1273 as Lutwile. The rights to high justice in the village in the late 13th and 14th Century was held by the Habsburgs. The rights to low justice was held by the lords...
municipality of Switzerland.
Leutwiler grew up in Glendale, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and at the age of 14, he attained the rank of Eagle Scout
Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America)
Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America . A Scout who attains this rank is called an Eagle Scout or Eagle. Since its introduction in 1911, the Eagle Scout rank has been earned by more than 2 million young men...
, the highest rank possible. He graduated from Kirkwood High School
Kirkwood High School
Kirkwood High School is a secondary school in Kirkwood, Missouri. It is located at 801 W Essex Ave, Kirkwood, MO. The school is part of the Kirkwood R-7 School District. The current principal is Dr. Mike Havener who replaced Dr...
in 1966 and participated in the School Newspaper, Chemistry Club, Biology Club, and German Club.
He majored in business at University of Tulsa
University of Tulsa
The University of Tulsa is a private university awarding bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. It is currently ranked 75th among doctoral degree granting universities in the nation by US News and World Report and is listed as one of the "Best 366 Colleges" by...
and Washington University, and served as Vice-President of Sales and President of Junior Achievement
Junior Achievement
Junior Achievement or JA or JA Worldwide is a non-profit youth organization that was founded in 1919 by Horace A. Moses, Theodore Vail, and senator Winthrop M. Crane. JA focuses on educating kids in K-12 about the free enterprise system...
. Before founding his own business, Leutwiler held a variety of sales positions at the Fuller Brush Company
Fuller Brush Company
The Fuller Brush Company sells branded and private label products for personal care as well as commercial and household cleaning; it is a subsidiary of CPAC Inc., which since 2007 has been owned by the private equity group Buckingham Capital Partners. Fuller Brush was founded in 1906, by Alfred...
, and Allied Radio
Allied Radio
Allied Radio was an American radio manufacturer and retailer, which sold radio sets, tubes, capacitors , amateur radio equipment, citizen's band radios, miscellaneous communications equipment, electronic kits, and consumer audio systems through retail stores and mail-order.-History:Beginning in...
.
Personal life
Leutwiler was married in 1978, and lived in Peabody, MassachusettsPeabody, Massachusetts
Peabody is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population is about 53,000. Peabody is located in Boston's North Shore suburban area.- History :...
and Danvers, Massachusetts
Danvers, Massachusetts
Danvers is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. Located on the Danvers River near the northeastern coast of Massachusetts, Danvers is most widely known for its association with the 1692 Salem witch trials, and for its famous asylum, the Danvers State Hospital.-17th century:The land...
with his wife and two stepsons Matt and Adam. He operated Leutwiler Photography from home, and members of the family often appeared in the quarterly Shooting the Breeze newsletter and assisted in running the business.
1973
In June 1973, Leutwiler used a professional 35 mm system to photograph his first sailboat race, the Marblehead, Massachusetts to Halifax, Nova Scotia race. He later stated the "quality was a disaster by my standards today", but as result of this race, Deadelus Photography was born (name changed to Leutwiler Photography in 1979). Leutwiler quickly realized that 35 mm would not produce sufficient images for professional enlargements, and soon made the permanent transition to HasselbladHasselblad
Victor Hasselblad AB is a Swedish manufacturer of medium-format cameras and photographic equipment based in Gothenburg, Sweden.The company is best known for the medium-format cameras it has produced since World War II....
cameras. He slowly began to find his market, selling his photographs primarily to sailboat owners, crew members, boat manufacturers, sailing magazines, and calendars published by magazines. In a 1987 interview with the St. Louis Post Dispatch, he compared his niche to "selling paper clips to General Motors".
1976
At the Miami-Nassua Race of the 1976 SORC, Leutwiler photographed Love Machine, which many sailors felt was the best action photograph of the period. It appeared as the cover of Yacht Racing Magazine in April 1976, and played a critical role in the building the recognition of the Leutwiler brand name. Wham Bam, Sunset, Tweety, Lonely Sea, and Condor were also published around this time and all became cornerstones of Leutwiler Photography.
1978
By 1978, about 1000 of Leutwiler's photographs had been published nationally in various companies' ads, brochures, and boat show displays. In the Fall of 1978, the first of many editions of the Shooting The Breeze newsletter was circulated to his ever growing customer list. The newsletter soon began to incorporate the elements of light hearted humor that would become a Leutwiler trademark.1980 - 1981
In the Spring 1980 edition of Shooting The Breeze, Leutwiler announced "Here we are in the Spring of 1980 and I thought I would tell you about my first entirely Leutwiler calendar for 1981. We have selected 13 of my best photographs and are currently in production. The printing quality will be superb and I feel it will be the best sailing calendar for 1981." The 1981 calendar sold out, kicking off a highly successful decade-long run.1982 - 1990
The 1980s were the peak years for Leutwiler Photography, as the annual calendar became a bigger staple of the sailboat racing world with each passing year, and his classic and new portraits continued to be a success. But after nearly twenty years of hard work and devotion, Leutwiler lost his passion and drive for sailboat photography and closed down the business in the 1990, selling off his negatives and camera equipment. He moved to Salt Lake City, Utah in the early 1990s and pursued a variety of other interests including real estate ventures. In 1993, he died in Salt Lake City.Sailboat races
Below is a partial listing of sailboat races Leutwiler photographed.| Year | Race | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 1976 in film The year 1976 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*March 22 - Filming begins on George Lucas' Star Wars science fiction film... |
SORC | |
| Onion Patch/Newport to Bermuda | ||
| Off Soundings | ||
| 1977 1977 in film The year 1977 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*In the Academy Awards, Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight win Best Actor and Actress and Supporting Actress awards for Network.... |
Key West Race | |
| SORC | ||
| Marion To Bermuda | ||
| Block Island - Storm Trysail | ||
| Marblehead to Halifax | ||
| Chicago to Mackinac | ||
| Bayview to Mackinac | ||
| LYRA | ||
| Annapolis Fall Series | ||
| 1978 1978 in film The year 1978 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 1 - Bob Dylan's film Renaldo and Clara, a documentary of the "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour premieres in Los Angeles, California.... |
SORC | |
| Onion Patch/Newport to Bermuda | ||
| Bay Week | ||
| Chicago to Mackinac | ||
| Bayview to Mackinac | ||
| Annapolis Fall Series | ||
| 1979 1979 in film The year 1979 in film involved some significant events.- Major events :* March 5 - Production begins on Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.* May 25 - Alien, a landmark of the science fiction genre, is released.... |
SORC | |
| Block Island - Storm Trysail | ||
| Chicago to Mackinac | ||
| 1980 1980 in film - Events :* May 21 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is released and is the biggest grosser of the year .... |
SORC | |
| New York YC Cruise | ||
| Block Island - Yachting Magazine | ||
| Off Soundings | ||
| 1981 1981 in film -Events:*January 19 - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquires beleaguered concurrent United Artists. UA was humiliated by the astronomical losses on the $40,000,000 movie Heaven's Gate, a major factor in the decision of owner Transamerica to sell it.... |
SORC | |
| J-24 Mid Winters | ||
| Block Island - Storm Trysail | ||
| Chicago to Mackinac | ||
| Bayview to Mackinac | ||
| LYRA | ||
| 1982 1982 in film -Events:* March 26 = I Ought to Be in Pictures, starring Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret and Dinah Manoff is released. Manoff would not appear in another movie until 1987's Backfire.* June = PG-rated film E.T... |
SORC | |
| Onion Patch/Newport to Bermuda | ||
| Key West Race | ||
| Block Island - Yachting Magazine | ||
| Manhassett Bay Fall Series | ||
| Columbus Day Regatta | ||
| 1983 1983 in film -Events:*February 11 - The Rolling Stones concert film Let's Spend the Night Together opens in New York*May 25 - Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, the final film in the original Star Wars trilogy, is released. Like the previous films, it goes on to become the top grossing picture of... |
SORC | |
| Chicago to Mackinac | ||
| Bayview to Mackinac | ||
| Block Island - Storm Trysail | ||
| 1984 1984 in film -Events:* The Walt Disney Company founds Touchstone Pictures to release movies with subject matter deemed inappropriate for the Disney name.* Tri-Star Pictures, a joint venture of Columbia Pictures, HBO, and CBS, releases its first film.... |
SORC | |
| Onion Patch/Newport to Bermuda | ||
| Key West Race | ||
| Block Island - Yachting Magazine | ||