This edition © Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd, 2021 Text and photography copyright © Andy Gotts, 2021 First published in 2021 by Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd Registered address: 27 Old Gloucester Street London WC1N 3AX www.scalapublishers.com
Published to accompany the exhibition ICONS: PORTRAITS BY ANDY GOTTS 2 – 16 September 2021 MADDOX GALLERY 112 Westbourne Grove London W2 5RU maddoxgallery.com
ISBN 978 1 78551 371 8 Editorial team: Jane Ace, Laura Fox and Claire Young Designed by Joe Ewart Printed and bound in Czech Republic 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of Andy Gotts and Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd. Every effort has been made to acknowledge correct copyright of images where applicable. Any errors or omissions are unintentional and should be notified to the Publisher, who will arrange for corrections to appear in any reprints.
Previous pages KATE WINSLET London 15 August 2006
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CONTENTS 6
ANDY GOTTS: CELEBRITIES, UNFILTERED
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INTRODUCTION BY STEPHEN FRY
10 ‘AN ORDINARY PERSON DOING AN EXTRAORDINARY JOB’ 12 JOHN HURT 15 20 88 154
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157 FASHION 162 DAVID GANDY 170 VIVIENNE WESTWOOD 179 MUSIC 192 RINGO STARR 202 BRIAN MAY 236 LIST OF SITTERS
MOVIES DICK VAN DYKE KATE WINSLET BRENT SPINER
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ANDY GOTTS CELEBRITIES, UNFILTERED The portraits of Dr Andy Gotts MBE are intimate and quintessentially human. Entirely unfiltered and unedited, his pictures have a raw energy to them. Each possesses a striking sense of the photographer’s art blending with the personality of his celebrity subject. Yes, celebrities, because Andy Gotts is one of the very few photographers who specialises in famous faces instead of a specific branch of the entertainment world. He admits a slight preference for working with actors, because, as he says, ‘I think there is a part of me that wishes I were an actor.’ He also proposes that the secret of his success is ‘eighty per cent luck, ten per cent alcohol and ten per cent rude jokes’, but it is safe to say that his ‘luck’ doesn’t come by chance. Dr Gotts makes his own luck through a unique blend of his artistic sensibility, naturally amiable personality and a preparation process that doesn’t exhaust his subjects with endless styling and makeup. His photoshoots are quick and concise. Just a chat between the photographer and the subject. Lots of laughter and just a few ‘clicks’ in the meantime. As he puts it, ‘Fifty per cent of the work is done by the other person. It’s half me and half them: we meet in the middle, and we create something.’ In that unique ‘twilight zone’ of the middle, Gotts’s works reveal celebrities in a familiar, almost intimate light. ‘This is how my daughter sees me’, said Kate Moss, and it will take you but a glance at this book to understand why. Since the sessions are so private, these otherwise public figures have the opportunity to be seen as they really are through the honest eye of the camera. In this era of retouching, where nonconformity and signs of age are promptly concealed, these pictures – so powerful and realistic – manage to capture the essence of these icons. At once a celebrity, an artist’s muse, and a human being.
This is the last professional portrait taken of the actor before he passed away in 2010. Gotts had been trying to photograph Curtis for many years: when he finally got in touch with the actor and was given an appointment in Las Vegas for the next day, he was overjoyed… until, late in the evening, he received an unexpected call from Curtis. The actor was still looking forward to the appointment but had a very special request: ‘Can you make me look like an icon, just one more time?’ And that’s exactly what Gotts did. By painting an American flag on Curtis’s face and with a close-up in a dim, almost mysterious light, he captured a portrait that is intimate and awe-inspiring at the same time. The gleam in Curtis’s eyes, staring right at the observer, expresses all the dignity of the giants of Hollywood’s Golden Era. The soul of a Hollywood star is seized in a photo that doesn’t gloss over reality, that doesn’t hide the passing of the years. The day after the photoshoot, Tony Curtis’s wife, Jill Vandenberg Curtis, showed the picture to her husband, who had collapsed that morning and was hospitalised. He stared at the picture – intensely, silently, his eyes locked on it for minutes on end – and said: ‘This is the best photo ever taken of me.’ Tony Curtis, the American Prince, died that same day. Not only did Gotts take the last picture of him and grant his wish, but he also took his favourite photo right before the end. ICONS becomes an even more powerful work when we remember that, behind every picture, there’s an anecdote. Unique narratives hide behind a smile or a tear. It’s this inner likeability, this glow from within, the spontaneous laugh or the timid smile that Andy Gotts captures with his lens.
It is humbling to think how many stars of the past and present have been immortalised by Dr Gotts’s camera. For example, in the book, you will find a remarkable photo of Tony Curtis.
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AIDAN TURNER London 23 March 2013
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INTRODUCTION BY STEPHEN FRY Thirty years ago (and counting) I was invited by the Norfolk College of Arts and Technology to come and give a talk to students at their campus in King’s Lynn. Poor, long-suffering NORCAT had been one of the numerous institutions of learning that had suffered the misfortune of having my rebellious and tormented younger self foisted upon them. They had put up with me for two whole years – the only school or college up until that time not to expel me, a forbearance for which I will always be grateful. I do not recall much about the talk I gave but I can remember that when it was all over, just as I was streaking to the door for a quick getaway, a shyly quiet yet somehow firmly insistent voice stopped me in my tracks. ‘Mr Fry!’ A young student, his eyes alight with determination, blinked up at me. ‘Can I photograph you please? I will be remarkably quick, I promise.’ I’ll let you into a secret, I absolutely hate being photographed. My usually equable (or so I like to think) good nature is frayed and ruffled by even the friendliest and most quietly efficient photographers. If they talk too much I get irked, if they are too silent I work myself up into believing them rude. I try to overcome or at least hide these wholly unreasonable feelings of animosity and resentment that surge and swill around inside me when submitting myself to the lens, but this antipathy does mean that when I am asked to sit for a portrait that isn’t a contractual publicity obligation I always say no.
STEPHEN FRY Norfolk 21 April 1990
If you had told me that I would meekly allow myself to be steered by a student photographer, an inexperienced amateur, into a prepared and well-lighted little makeshift studio without a murmur of protest, I would never have believed you. But we all have instincts, and there was something in this young man’s manner that told me (doubtless at a very deep subconscious
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level) that he was the real thing. If you are in the public eye you very quickly develop a nose for what one might call cheap people, those who are mostly interested in gossip, glamour and all the trappings that go with celebrity. This young man was clearly not about to ask me when the next series of Blackadder was due or what Rik Mayall was ‘really like’ – he was absorbed only in the shot, the angles, the light, the skin tones, the face and, maybe, what lived behind the face. He avoided – instinctively I had to suppose – all the mannerisms and behaviours that grate. No gushing compliments, but no over-casual nonchalance either. No babbling, but no cold silence. No clumsiness, no self-conscious fussiness, no cool posing, no nerdy awkwardness. I can’t tell you how rare this is. The photographers one adores and who even become friends, the Terry O’Neills of this world, are loved because of the ease and sweetness of their personality as much as for their skill. Indeed, when it comes to portraiture you cannot separate technique and talent from personality. As I say, this was all very subconscious and when a handful of minutes later (he was as good as his word) I left this young man’s temporary little studio space, I did not actively say to myself, ‘I shall look out for this Andy Gotts fellow. I will hear his name again’ – it was more that I had sat for him because I had sensed that he had It. This book shows that, for once in my life, I was damned right. Andy Gotts has It in spades. He has shot more ‘celebrities’ than David Bailey, Lord Snowdon and Annie Leibovitz combined yet a quick riffle through these pages will show you that it isn’t because he produces flattering studio-approved beauty shots. So what can his secret be?
He is not a glamour photographer like Mario Testino for example, nor does he create scenarios and devise settings and single-moment dramas like Lord Snowdon. His forte is the absolutely direct, black-and-white portrait, full-on, sometimes grainy and remorseless in the detailing of complexion, sometimes mischievously witty and unexpected, always completely unforgettable. He reveals the blemishes, craters, wrinkles and all the marks of age and ill-use that the human skin can carry. But not for the sake of it. There’s a love and respect in such intimate authenticity and his subjects know that. Actors are a vain lot, but our vanity is directed not towards regularity and smoothness; we love the camera to catch our inward complexities and energies, to reveal a life behind the eyes. That is what real portraiture can offer, and of this Andy Gotts is the acknowledged master. I am very proud of my discovery, but completely aware that my moment of minutes in King’s Lynn in 1990 had nothing to do with his irresistible and inevitable rise to the very top. That Andy has dedicated his career and focussed his energies more towards charitable causes than to the acquisition of personal riches and fame is one more reason to be proud of such a remarkable artist, hero and friend.
I gave up trying to define or explain It a long time ago, in whatever field It may be encountered. Thousands of hours of practice, application, diligence and dedication? You bet. Is it 5 per cent inspiration, 95 per cent perspiration? Naturally. Luck? Of course. Personality? For sure. All these necessarily play a part in making up the successful portrait photographer, just as they do in making up the successful actor, business executive, politician, tennis player or parent, friend or lover come to that. But a quality that is often overlooked (perhaps because it seems so subjective and so impossible to define) is likeability. It’s 80 per cent of a George Clooney or Tom Hanks say, and it’s certainly a large part of Andy’s makeup. Tony Curtis, John Hurt, Ian McKellen, the Pythons… they all just liked Andy Gotts. Which means they’d stay patiently under the lights that much longer, they’d go along with a weird idea that much more willingly – and the results speak for themselves. This likeability does not mean that Andy’s work is bland, sweet and flattering. His vision remains always clear and unflinching. Pitiless, even.
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ADRIEN BRODY Delaware 18 October 2003
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MATT DAMON Prague 9 October 2003
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‘HE SEES BEAUTY IN EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE.’ The first time I shot with Andy was nearly 20 years ago. He rocked up on his own, just him and I, and we ended up chatting – and giggling – our way through a photoshoot (which is not always how they go, I should add) and throughout it all I barely realised he was taking my portrait. I genuinely felt like I was just chatting away with a friend. Mark Twain once said ‘golf is a good walk spoiled’ by the hitting of a ball. A shoot with Andy is like a fabulous chat interrupted by his camera going ‘click’ every now and again. What’s particularly wonderful to me is that we have shot so many times together since 2001 and he still turns up today just as he did back at the beginning of all this; on his own with his camera – no assistants, no team, just him. Andy doesn’t edit his photos. There’s no Photoshopping, just pure raw images that somehow capture his subjects’ ‘essence’ – his defining brand of magic. With the pursuit of perfection in this day and age, it is refreshing to witness his attitude and mindset that not every face needs to look perfect. One of my very fondest memories of our fun times together took place many years ago when Andy and I were chatting; I believe we had met up so I could co-sign a couple of prints. He mentioned that he was thinking of expanding the colour section of his portfolio and asked if I fancied being captured in glorious colour, rather than his usual monochromatic / film-noir style. I knew I would be heading back to New York
so I suggested that we do it there and that maybe I’d have the opportunity to gather some of my New York chums together to make his trip worthwhile. Without Andy’s knowledge, I called round some of my closest friends and arranged an ‘English afternoon tea’ – well just lots of tea and biscuits really – my idea being that while they were at my place, Andy could grab them one at a time and take them into a spare room for some quick shots. With much fortune my ‘Avengers assemble!’ call was answered by everyone I invited, from Susan Sarandon and Julianne Moore to Bill Nighy and John Turturro. I believe there was a little party of ten or so tucking into Hobnobs and digestive biscuits at one point. The tea party went perfectly, and Andy was totally in his element, taking his portraits and charming my friends with his warmth and wit. The resulting colour photographs were pretty stunning too. Raw, true and honest. That is most definitely his gift; he sees people’s spirits and delivers exquisite real and natural portraits. He sees beauty in everything and everyone, and frankly working with him is a pleasure. I have enormous respect for the incredible journey that he has been on and continues to trail through with grace, dignity, strength and a wicked laugh.
KATE WINSLET London 16 September 2013
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MARK HAMILL Malibu 5 February 2018
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LILY JAMES London 3 September 2015
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Following pages IAN McKELLEN AND PATRICK STEWART Berkeley 14 August 2013
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ELTON JOHN Lyon 16 July 2014
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‘THE ANSEL ADAMS OF FACES’ Every time I see your face It reminds me of the places we used to go All I’ve got is a photograph And I realize you’re not coming back anymore From ‘Photograph’, Ringo Starr, 1973
I have always had a love for photography. There are only five photographs of me from birth to when I turned 18 – there weren’t a lot of cameras in the family. So when we formed the band and I had the opportunity – and money – I went camera mad. That’s how it started really. Getting photos, getting in the photo-booths taking shots of myself and everything around me. My love for photography just sort of progressed from there.
This is where I see the similarity between my photographs and the photographs of Andy Gotts – who is the Ansel Adams of faces. He manages to capture the here and now – what the faces in front of his lens actually look like – almost a historic document of their landscape. This is why I think it’s important to keep the truth in photographs, just like in the photos that he has taken of me – and I love them.
I think I really got more serious about photography, more excited by and interested in it, during the Beatles era. Photography became my passion alongside playing; I enjoyed doing both. We had lots of downtime, mostly lying around in hotel rooms playing around. With my camera always at hand my playing around was taking a shot or two.
Andy’s sessions are a lot of fun. I love seeing a picture, like the ones we have shot together, and knowing that we did them in my garage. He put a few lights on me, and there you go. I love that attitude too – you’re not in the studio and it’s all ‘real’; we’re just hanging out in the garage then ‘Let’s take the photo’. It’s a really good experience. He is a fine man, and as we know, he is a great photographer. So it is my pleasure to hang out with him for his 45-minute sessions – all the time he needs to create his magic.
Arriving in New York for the first time in the 1960s was one of the most exciting days of my life. Even before we landed, we were so excited just to be in America. During this time lots of photographers were shooting The Beatles and I got to know many of them, like Dezo Hoffman. It seemed a good idea at the time, so I began shooting back! I wasn’t documenting for later, I was taking pictures for now.
Peace and love.
RINGO STARR Beverly Hills 2 February 2018
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I give my heartfelt thanks to all who gave their time to be photographed for ICONS.
In a world of accelerating change, art is one of the world’s greatest luxuries.
Huge cheers to all who have contributed texts and words of wisdom: Stephen Fry, Ringo Starr, Brian May, Michael Palin, Dick Van Dyke, Vivienne Westwood, Brent Spiner, David Gandy, Kate Winslet and the late John Hurt. Also, thanks to all the elves and assistants that have helped with wrangling the texts: Jo, Scotty, Arlene, Carrie, Sarah and Anwen.
Since our inception in 2015, we have had the pleasure of welcoming visitors to experience the best emerging, established and blue-chip contemporary artists across our five gallery locations in London, Los Angeles and Gstaad.
I would like to kick in the shins all the agents, managers and publicists that have dragged their feet in organising shoots and are the reason this project has taken over a decade to shoot! A massive high-five to each and every champagne vineyard that has kept me going. Deep thanks to family and friends that have coped with my vast mood swings: Enid, Ivor, Steven, Deborah, Isabelle; Ian and Kenneth. HUGE thanks to all the lovely, shiny people without whose help this project would have been not as much fun: Henrik and the staff of Flemings Mayfair. Margo and Cassie for their MUA talents. Will and the HOI posse. Jay and the Maddox Gallery, especially John Russo and his team, with matchmaker Mr Gandy; Mamiya, Elinchrom and Phase One for the magnificent equipment. Additional gratitude goes to Duncan and the Unseen team who have championed my photography.
Propelled by a passion for art and a desire to do things differently, we pride ourselves on creating welcoming and inspiring spaces for both collectors and artists alike; on offering a doorway to a more inspiring and impactful experience of contemporary art. Exhibiting artworks by a range of incredible talents, we take every measure to recognise and support the work of our artists with the respect it deserves, wherever they may be in their own story. When it comes to the artwork of globally renowned photographer, Andy Gotts, there are stories in abundance. From the tales of what happens behind the scenes at shoots, to the testimonials from the icons Andy has photographed to date, each image tells a unique and equally entertaining story. These interactions and experiences are testament to the sheer talent and likeability of this great artist, who we were delighted to welcome to the Maddox family in 2021.
This book would not have the look and flow without the skills and dedication of all at Scala Arts and Heritage Publishers: Jane, Laura, Claire, Joe, Tim and Jenny. Most importantly, a plethora of thanks to all the people who have believed in me and have given a bumbling photographer from north Norfolk a chance over the last three decades.
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