Understand Photography
The Donald’s Palm Beach Social Club, A Splendid Setting for Photography, and Dogs
by Tom Tracy
PALM BEACH
Somewhere at the end the 35mm film era, about 2005, I got a call to help shoot a charity gala at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club for Lucien Capehart, the Palm Beach photographer who was himself a bit of a local celebrity and who passed away in 2012.
It was winter, in Season, and we were told The Donald might be in town that night and to be ready in case he made an appearance at the dinner-dance, held in the brand new Grand Ballroom at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump had added the new ballroom to the mansion so that Mar-A-Lago could compete with the nearby Breakers Hotel for the biggest and best society events on “the island,” including the International Red Cross ball.
The 17-acre Mar-A-Lago straddles both the Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway looking back at West Palm Beach, and includes a number of buildings apart from the 58-bedroom main house — which doubles as both Trump’s Florida residence and as a hotel, dining room, bar, spa and tennis center for club members.
Trump had bought the home in the 1980s, and then spent years renovating the property (it was originally completed in 1927 for Marjorie Merriweather Post and her husband E.F. Hutton) before gaining permission from the Town of Palm Beach to operate as a club in 1995. A separate golf club is across town.
Trump is apparently still trying to get incoming air traffic to Palm Beach airport to move away from the property, arguing that it is disruptive to club guests and damaging to the home (it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places). To this day incoming planes roar overhead from the Ocean side.
When The Donald did appear that night in 2005 it was all smiles and fun: He burst through a door to the ballroom, grabbed some nearby guests and shouted in my direction, “Get a photo,” before leaping onto the stage to thank the charity organizers for bringing their event in his club.
Since the addition of the ballroom especially, a lot of South Florida photographers have been to Mar-A-Lago to shoot weddings and events set against the estate’s Old World Mediterranean backdrop of Spanish, Portuguese and Italian decor, tiles, arches, fountains and sculpture. A favorite space is the club’s classic wood-paneled bar area (and featuring a stately painting of a young Donald in a tennis sweater.)
For my part, I have been back just three times — for a Catholic Charities fundraiser, to shoot a private 50th wedding anniversary dinner where we again spotted The Donald, and most recently, to photograph “Eiko de Louis.”
Eiko is the name of a prize German Shepherd owned by one of the Mar-A-Lago club members (we’ll call her “Mrs. M”) and who will appear in the 2015 edition of “Dog Society,” an annual coffee table book of dog portraits published by Palm Beach Society Magazine.
Mrs. M, myself and a lighting assistant were given access to Mar-A-Lago on a Sunday last Winter, and since the club is closed on Sundays it meant we had the grounds all to ourselves to romp around with Eiko.
We started our pictures around the pool lawn, the garden areas, across the street to the Ocean and beach house, and ending at the Intracoastal in time for sunset and silhouette shots.
I learned that a dog’s ears should be upright and alert for formal dog photography, so Mrs. M had a squeaky toy to help with that.
Later, I created one of my gift photo books of Mar-A-Lago event photography for the marketing team there. I had a visiting pal with me in the car on the afternoon I delivered the book to the valet staff at Mar-A-Lago. My friend never got around to asking, “What is this place?”
It just might not be exaggeration at this point in time to say that we were at the Florida home of a future U.S. President.
~Tom Tracy is a writer, photojournalist and event photographer based in West Palm Beach. He has traveled extensively as a travel & religion writer. www.TomTracy.com
