Pictures make ideas real. And portraits make people real. Artist and photographer Dan Fleuette joins the Drill Down to describe how he creates art through personalities on the political right.
A self-described “art school lunatic,” Fleuette was the artist that turned Peter Schweizer’s bestselling investigative book Clinton Cash into both a documentary and even a graphic novel.
Fleuette just published a collection of his portraiture of important, often controversial figures from within the conservative movement. Rebels, Rogues, and Outlaws is a pictorial history of guests who have appeared on The War Room, a YouTube and Rumble video channel hosted by Steve Bannon.
The book features portraits of Bannon, as well as people such as Rep. Lauren Boebert, Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Tucker Carlson, and Alex Jones.
“Some of the people in your book are going to be in Donald Trump’s cabinet,” Schweizer says. “And some of them might go to jail.”
“The underlying principle for the book is, really, a spirit of rebellion,” Fleuette explains. “They are called ‘outlaws’ in the book, but are they really? The book is an homage to them, to the spirit of people who refuse to bow down to political correctness.”
Co-host Eric Eggers calls the book “high art in a conservative media space.”
“It captures a different side of them,” Schweizer agrees.
Making portraits has given Fleuette skill in humanizing his subjects and making them feel at ease, which he often found difficult with men who spent all day in the public eye who became reticent in front of the lens. “Some people allowed me to do some funky things, like RFK, Tucker Carlson, Tulsi Gabbard, and Lauren Boebert,” he says. “But the women were incredibly easy. Once they felt comfortable and trusted me, they opened up and blossomed. They will allow you to find levels that men won’t,” he observes.
“Laura Loomer was a fun shoot,” he says.
Fleuette has taken Peter Schweizer’s portrait as well, but it didn’t make the cut for the book. “Dan’s very good,” Schweizer recalls. “He makes people feel relaxed, and there’s a lot of trust involved when someone wants to shoot from below you, and that sort of thing.”
Fleuette embraces the famous and sometimes infamous characters he often shoots for the show’s website. “Alex Jones was an interesting day,” he says, noting that Jones sat for him the day after Jones lost a court case that resulted in his being liable for millions of dollars to the families of Sandy Hook shooting victims he had slandered. “Alex Jones has a lot of enemies. But he also has a lot of friends, too. I try to capture not the controversy, but the spirit of the individual. He hates getting his portrait taken,” Fleuette says.
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