Greg Gorman’s 11 Most Famous Celebrity Photographs
Greg Corman is an incredible photographer and he has an exhibit at the Decorative Center in Houston up until June 3, because of this he picked out his 11 favorite photos that he has ever taken of celebrities for the Houston Culture Map. Here is his picks:
Michael Jackson, 1987
“Michael was a perfectionist beyond your wildest imagination. Every time we would shoot, he would call me and we’d have a two-hour conversation to discuss what it was we were going to do and how we were going to go about it. He had pet tarantulas; they actually shed their skin. This is the casing of the tarantula that he brought with him. He never traveled with a big entourage. He was very genuine and really loved photography. I dearly miss him. He was a tragic individual but an amazing human being.”
David Bowie, 1984
“I started working with him about the time of Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). We just tried a whole myriad of different things. David was very creative and we did a lot of pictures together in the late ’80s and early ’90s.”
Iman, 1988
“She and I were friends and it was during the late ’80s when I was shooting a lot of male and female nudes and I just asked her about it. She wasn’t hesitant at all. Nobody was hesitant about doing nudes in the ’80s and ’90s. It wasn’t until the onset of the Internet basically castrated the concept of shooting male and female nudes that really brought it to a shocking halt. There’s been lots of positive things about the Internet, but that’s certainly not one of them. Now people can steal your images and post them. It’s very difficult to get the kind of openness and candidness in a lot of photography being done today because of the Internet.”
Heath Ledger, 2004
“This picture was taken in Venice, Italy for the movie Casanova. Heath was the perfect example of a person not crazy about doing a lot of photography. It was put off until the third or fourth day that I was in Venice, the last day. We found out, through doing a little research, that he was a big fan of wine. So we got Heath a bunch of great wine. We shot a lot of pictures, but as soon as the wine was gone, he was gone. But we did get the pictures. And for the time that Heath was there he was certainly a beautiful man to photograph and great in front of the camera.”
Barbra Streisand, 1981
“This is a picture taken after work one day on the set of a little movie she did, All Night Long. Barbara was a total professional. She was very set in her ways and how she wanted to be photographed but never difficult in time and focus. It’s never the big stars that are difficult in any way. It’s the young, up-and-coming stars who have made one mediocre movie that have gotten great praise and think they’re the greatest thing since chopped liver. The big ones know what it’s taken to get to where they are and they’re never difficult. Barbara definitely favors the side you see in that picture. It was funny because when we were working on that movie we discussed shooting the other side of her face because she was getting ready to do Yentel as as the boy character. Bette Midler is also the same way; she also favors one side of her face.”
Sophia Loren, 1994
“Sophia was always one of my heroes. From when I was a little kid, the three people I always wanted to photograph were Sophia Loren, Bridget Bardot and Gina Lollobrigida. I shot Sophia in Rome for Detour magazine. She drove herself to the shoot. Did her own makeup and hair….She said to me one point at lunch. ‘You know Greg, I’m really not 60, I’m three times 20.’ ”
Leonardo Di Caprio, 1994
“Leo was one of the most relaxed, most comfortable human beings inside his skin of anyone I ever photographed. That makes for a great subject, when they’re really open and accessible and willing to go for it. Look at that contact sheet and you really can see so many different looks throughout the images. Leo always looked really young. When I shot that, he was probably 18 or 19.”
Djimon Hounsou, 1991
“He has perfect features, perfect teeth. Just a great specimen of a human being not to mention one of the nicest guys on the planet. When I was finishing my third book, Inside Life, which was a book on personality portraits, I didn’t want to put an actor on the cover, because it would put me in a bind, (other actors asking) ‘Why didn’t get on the cover?’ I thought I’ll put Djimon on the cover. He’s a great model and it’s an interesting picture. When we had a dinner after the very first book signing, he had just landed his first major film role. He went on, as you know, to become a great actor.”
Grace Jones, 1995
“Grace has been a lifetime very dear friend of mine. She’s probably one of the most misunderstood and fun people I know. Everybody thinks she’s this giant, but she’s not that tall. She’s extraordinary looking. She probably has one of the greatest senses of style and taste and design of anyone I know. At the same time, she’s one of the most down-to-earth, funny, candid, quirky individuals I have ever met. She’s one of the great dinner guests because she’s super-down-to-earth, very funny and doesn’t take herself too seriously. I can show you 1,000 great pictures of Grace Jones. She always has the best clothes, the best styling, just the greatest taste. She can pull it off.”
John Waters, 1994
“John Waters is so unmistakably recognizable for that pencil-thin mustache…..Some people think it kind of looks like a vagina, but that’s the flip side of John Waters.”
Andy Warhol, 1986
“If there was any magazine responsible for launching my career, it was Interview. I shot probably 20 covers for Andy in the early ’80s. I did a campaign with LA Eyeworks called ‘Every Face is like a Work of Art: It deserves a Great Frame.’ One day Andy called me up and, in his inimitable way, he always had kind of a stutter, he asked me in so many words did I think that LA Eyeworks would be interested in photographing him for their ad. I told him I thought that could probably be worked out. Andy came out and it just happened. That became one of my most famous images.”
I love every single one of them. What is your favorite?
Popularity: unranked [?]
