Photographing Celebrities With a Giant Polaroid

Photography Tips

When Chuck Close decided to do a series of portraits involving 20 well-known celebrities, he wanted to do something a bit different from a typical photo shoot. In the video below, you get a backstage pass to the unique shoot. Once you see Close’s approach, you may be a little surprised:

Some of the celebrities involved in the process include Oprah, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, and Forrest Whitaker. In order to participate in the shoot, they all had to be willing to follow Close’s rules: they were not allowed to wear makeup, they were asked to style themselves, and they would be photographed using a giant Polaroid camera that was placed just inches from their faces.

Brad Pitt

“I don’t do glamor shots, they’re not airbrushed so they can be rough. I need to talk people through it so they’ll give up a great deal of vanity in order to do it. It takes a real act of generosity and faith on part of the subject to go with it and give me an image without having any control over the image.”