Jeff Bridges

Actor Jeff Bridges has a passion for on-set photography with his Widelux camera. Steve Fairclough speaks to him about his latest book

- Steve Fairclough

It’s just after 9pm in the UK when I get put through to Jeff Bridges, who is at his offices in Los Angeles. The familiar drawl of ‘The Dude’ (his character from The Big Lebowski) says, “Hey Steve,” and we start a conversation about how this Academy Award-winning actor has a deep love for still images, as well as moving images.

Bridges’ fascination for photography dates back to his teenage years. Like many who go on to become professional photographers, he started playing with his father’s camera. Not long after that, he saw a Widelux camera in action when a photographer came to his high school, armed with one of these swing-lens panoramic cameras, to shoot the class picture. The Widelux format had gone to the back of Bridges’ mind until his wedding day in 1977, when the photographer used a Widelux to shoot the happy event. After seeing the wedding pictures, Bridges admits he was “hooked”; since the mid-1980s he has shot on-set panorama-format images for each of the films he has been involved in. In 2003, the first book of his on-set photographs, Pictures, was published; in late 2019, this was followed up by the publication of Pictures: Volume Two.

The new tome gives a unique insider’s viewpoint to the machinations of the movie industry in the 21st century, as seen through the lens of a true Hollywood legend. Bridges takes you behind the scenes of motion pictures such as True Grit, Crazy Heart, Tron: Legacy, Seabiscuit and Hell or High Water with photographs that are technically adroit, revealing and full of humour. So, without further ado, here’s his photographic story…

When you were younger, did you have an interest in photography, and how did it come about?