The thread continues.....
By coincidence(?), the Guardian newspaper supplement last Saturday
(11/11/00) featured a big section on portraits of Hollywood celebrities.
Many were by the likes of Annie Leibovitz and Herb Ritts. There was also a
much smaller article, written by Eamon McCabe. McCabe is picture ed at the
paper, and has been a highly respected newspaper photog for a long time. It
was illustrated by three small b&w portraits. He describes some of the
difficulties he has faced when trying to get good photographs of actors to
accompany reviews of films etc. In contrast to the big Vanity Fair type
setups as used by Leibovitz etc (which are invariably good PR for the
actors), newspapers have a different agenda:
"The one aim of the studio photographers, given all the time they wanted,
was to make their subjects look glamorous" he says. "For me, flattery is not
the issue; my aim, like the interviewer's, is to try and show the real
person behind the gloss". He quotes Jane Bown, who is trying for the same
thing: "My photographs are instinctive - I don't know how to get it right,
but I don know when it feels right. I don't use lights ot flash or even a
meter - that means I travel light and don't waste time setting up".
As the photographer often gets 15-20 minutes to do their job with the
subject, who is probably on their fifth such sitting of the day, one can
imagine it's no easy task to extract a meaningful image under such
circumstances.
Simon E.
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|