“Nobody ever believes me when I say I’m just a Norfolk boy,” says Andy Gotts. Take one look at his celebrity portrait-filled website and it’s easy to see why. It views like a who’s who of Hollywood, featuring hundreds of famous faces. It isn’t, in short, a portfolio you’d believe began in King’s Lynn, with a portrait of Stephen Fry. But that’s just what happened, as Gotts explains here…
I made a wish list of 100 actors at the start of my career that I wanted to meet and I’d met them all within six years of starting out.
At 45 and 26 years into his career, Andy Gotts has photographed hundreds of film and television stars. And that’s no accident – it is, in fact, exactly what he set out to do. “I made a wish list of 100 actors at the start of my career that I wanted to meet and I’d met them all within six years of starting out,” he explains. These include everyone from Robert De Niro to Clint Eastwood; George Clooney to Lauren Bacall; Keira Knightley to Daniel Radcliffe. He is best known for his photobook, Degrees – a collection of 300 black-and-white portraits of celebrities and figures in the public eye – and has been awarded an MBE for his contributions to photography.As Gotts prepares to complete a near decade-long project cataloguing yet more stars of film, music and fashion, in a fundraising collaboration with Sir Elton John, he pauses to reflect on a journey that started in Sheringham.
“I try to get famous people to act in a way you never see in pictures,” he explains. “Whenever I do a photo shoot, I always do an internet search beforehand. Everyone has a ‘photo face’ and you have to break them; the pretend laugh, the looking down with a hand in the hair… ”
Whether it’s Scarlett Johansson pulling funny faces (“she was really drunk,” he laughs) or Sidney Poitier with tears rolling down his cheeks as he recounts the story of his birth, Gotts has an uncanny ability to break down boundaries. “You treat them as you would a friend,” he says, simply.
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Denne historien er fra Issue 22-utgaven av Professional Photography.
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Beauty And The Banal
Head of photographs Phil Prodger explains how William Eggleston used colour experimentally as the National Portrait Gallery opens the largest display of his portrait photography ever seen.
The Art Of The Incomplete
Amélie Labourdette’s work documents eerie, grey skeletons of unfinished buildings. Her images are a comment on how we inhabit the world, but they’ve also become pieces of art in their own right – and a hint at what might happen to us all in the future.
The Photographer's Guide to SEO
Discover how to get your photography website high in Google’s rankings
The Royal Treatment
Press photographer and agency head Joe Sene discusses the challenge of capturing iconic news moments, and how switching to Olympus has been a true game changer for him
Joanna Millington
The Norwich-based photographer is on a mission to revive the art of the traditional portrait in the age of the throwaway selfie
World Press Photo 2018 Gallery
In the world of 2018, photojournalism is more important than ever. From the aftermath of an ISIS car bomb to delicate meditations on our relationship with the planet, the annual World Press Photo of the Year contest celebrates and honours the industry’s finest. We present a selection of our favourite images from among this year’s winners.
Modern-day Daguerreotypes
Jerry Spagnoli has resurrected one of the oldest mediums in photography and adapted it to suit a contemporary clientele. Now museums are starting to pay attention
Something Really Wonderful Is Going On
A seagull is suspended, sunlit and spread-winged against a lowering sky. Men unknown to each other march together as if advancing on an unseen enemy. A woman with polished shoes searches through a large, pale handbag. Young girls in matching dresses look to be fleeing impending disaster. Eamonn Doyle shows us fragments of moments in a world of uncertainty and human frailty, with a unique and potentially devastating voice. A relative newcomer to the world of photobooks and photography galleries, he has become a powerful force in the art photography world since 2012.
Share Your Photography, Support A Charity
A new photography competition for positive social change.
“With no whipped cream available, we ended up using mentholated shaving foam. Oh, does that sting the eyes!”
“With no whipped cream available, we ended up using mentholated shaving foam. Oh, does that sting the eyes!”