Ulvis Alberts, the primary official photographer of the World Collection of Poker (WSOP) who took a number of the most iconic photographs from the late Seventies and early Nineteen Eighties – together with people who cling on the partitions contained in the Horseshoe Resort & On line casino – has handed away on the age of 83.
The information was first shared on social media:
“At present, on November 18, a gorgeous life has come to an finish. Photographer Ulvis Alberts has set off on a distant journey by way of the galaxies of the world. We prolong our condolences to all who admired the artist’s expertise and to everybody for whom Ulvis was vital. Details about the farewell ceremony will comply with.”
Alberts was the primary photographer granted limitless entry to a beforehand roped-off world at Binion’s Horseshoe.
Born in Latvia, Alberts immigrated to the US in 1949. He attended the College of Washington in Seattle and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in radio and tv. Within the late Sixties, he snapped pictures of luminaries equivalent to Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, and Jimi Hendrix, simply to call a number of.
Within the early Seventies, he relocated to Los Angeles after accepting an invite to audit the filmmaker’s program on the American Movie Institute. Throughout his time there he took iconic pictures of celebrities equivalent to Groucho Marx, John Wayne, Christopher Reeve, Peter Sellers, and lots of others. These pictures and extra have been memorialized in his e book Digicam as Passport: 1966-2008.
It was an adventurous and stellar profession, and all earlier than he ever set foot inside a on line casino. Then got here an invite from Jack Binion to {photograph} the WSOP for the primary time.
“I obtained invited primarily by Jack Binion in 1977,” Alberts instructed PokerNews again in 2019. “I used to be residing in L.A. so I may drive my automobile to Las Vegas.”
“It did not seem to be a giant deal. It kind of allowed me on the opposite facet of the tape. It gave me an opportunity to enter a world I wasn’t accustomed to. I am not a poker participant, by the best way. It was an opportunity to see these individuals, these characters and cowboys, and in these days, I obtained a whole lot of good pictures simply by the truth that individuals have been smoking cigars and cigarettes. The smoke enhanced a number of the conditions at Binion’s. It was a brand new world.”
Except for the occasional winner photograph or vacationer pic, poker pictures wasn’t a factor on the time.
“I believed what the native information photographers had performed was simply present the profitable gap playing cards with the winner subsequent to the money,” mentioned Alberts, who shot with a loud Nikon movie digicam. “It was boring stuff. I used to be making an attempt to get a little bit extra intimate, a little bit extra character-oriented and so forth.”
He added, “I do not know many individuals who did what I did. I hung in there on my knees by a chair. I am certain I used to be disturbing someone by being there, however it allowed me to get images that no one else obtained. A variety of my pictures ended up in different individuals’s books — definitely the magazines of the time — and I simply did it as a result of it was one thing I hadn’t performed earlier than. I hadn’t been round that sort of crowd.”
Alberts’s pictures definitely captured particular moments in poker historical past, ones stuffed with fabled characters like Stu Ungar, Puggy Pearson, and Amarillo Slim.
“I used to be up shut and private as a result of I needed to get photographs I believed no one else cared about,” Alberts mentioned. “I do not keep in mind anyone complaining. I do not know in the event that they talked to Jack Binion about it, however I simply stored on going … I felt welcomed there. I felt I used to be doing one thing worthwhile, and I knew the pictures could be higher than simply anyone dropping in on the sport.”
“I used to be on the opposite facet of the rail, which stored the crowds out. I had it to myself, that was the vital factor, and so they let me maintain doing it.”
PokerNews Op-Ed: It’s Time to Get Ulvis Alberts within the Poker Corridor of Fame
Poker Face
In 1981, Alberts collected lots of his pictures into his first tremendous artwork pictures e book, Poker Face. At present, the e book sells for as a lot as $2,500 on the aftermarket. After that, he pivoted away from poker to pursue different passions. Nevertheless, prefer it does to so many, the sport finally known as him again.
A yr earlier than Tennessee accountant Chris Moneymaker would change the course of poker historical past endlessly, Alberts returned to Binion’s in 2002. Sadly, he found that issues weren’t the identical as they’d been earlier than. A lot of the characters he’d met greater than 20 years earlier had handed away, with Doyle Brunson being an exception.
Nonetheless, Alberts set about doing what he does greatest — taking pictures — and in 2006, he adopted up his unique assortment with Poker Face 2, restricted to 2,000 copies. He even made his option to the Rio himself for a number of years through the “poker increase” to promote the e book at a sales space.
“I went to the Rio, however it grew to become too massive for me,” he says. “It was an excessive amount of of an occasion. What do I do right here? There are such a lot of individuals. I did not see the characters I loved at Binion’s in a smaller room. It is simply completely different now. I simply felt I had performed what I may do with pictures. There are a whole lot of footage.”
PokerNews gives its condolences to the family and friends of Ulvis Alberts.
Particular because of Toms Zvirbulis of Galerija Birkenfelds and Eric Harkins of Picture Masters for his or her assist and photograph permission on this article. Lead picture courtesy of (c) Imants Gross.
Chad Holloway
PR & Media Supervisor
