PHOTOGRAPHING THE WELL-KNOWN
Again I am away for another week, so I make this little offering about making portraits.
This of the Peter Ustinov, shot at the height of his fame, was amongst the few delights of my professional career of photographing famous and well-know people.
What has become clear to me is that many ‘stars’ would only project a PR fabricated exterior persona. The photographer could only work on penetrating that so far until a manager/PR/ or the ‘star’ themselves would stop the attempt. And, usually there was simply not enough time given to the shoot or to getting to chat before the shoot.
This is a ‘commercial’ portrait, shot for the Penguin edition of Mr Ustinov’s autobiography. I was given about 40 minutes to get in, set up, shoot and depart and on a day without an assistant. As I dragged yet another case into his hotel room he insisted in coming down to the lobby to help me. Immediately there was a rapport between us.
By the time I had one light up I needed to start shooting. We talked, joked, laughed and I shot several rolls on my Hasselblad. He radiated the light as his intelligent and mirth filled face shone out from the dark background and the black sweater I asked him to wear.
Of all the pictures from the secession, I preferred this one even with his eyes closed, or because of his closed eyes – so against one’s instincts to show the ‘portals of the soul’.
This is a picture of a man who found inner joy and whose outward expression of that joy radiated from his face, even without the viewer seeing his eyes. That, for me then, and still today, was a gift.
His intelligence as well as his playfulness and kindness are written all over this picture.
How did I know to release the shutter at this counter-instinctual moment? I knew because, although perhaps only partly conscious of what I was doing, I made a choice completely informed by all of my culture and experiences. That meant I was as aware of him as I was of me, but my self-awareness was devoted to him.
Without the self-awareness, one is emotionally and intellectually incapable of self-expression.
MORE TO COME