Andy Gotts – Big Shot

British master Andy Gotts presents 30 years of stupendous work in a new book

- By Jared Paul Stern

A self-described “bumbling photographer” from Norfolk, England who was appointed MBE— one step down from a knighthood—in the Queen’s New Years Honours List in 2012, Andy Gotts has certainly come a long way in the past 30 years. Though you may not be familiar with his name, a compelling new compendium of his work, Andy Gotts: The Photograph, published by ACC Art Books, makes clear that you should get acquainted. Just ask Britain’s National Portrait Gallery, which holds a number of his photographs in its permanent collection.

Gotts famously got his start with an impromptu 90-second photoshoot with Stephen Fry while at university in 1989, a chance encounter he has leveraged into an impressive career; one of his subjects, actor Alan Cumming, writes in an essay for the book that “Andy has now photographed more celebrities than any other photographer…. More than Annie Leibovitz, more than David Bailey, more than Lord Snowdon, combined!” What’s more, he does it without the usual retinue of assistants and other hangers-on.