This year marks the 20th anniversary of Degrees, Andy Gotts’ acclaimed book of portraits of A-list actors.
Inspired by the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game (where players try to connect any actor back to Kevin Bacon through no more than six films), Gotts operated by asking each actor he shot to introduce him to one of their famous friends. The result is a fabulous collection of photographs of more than 100 of the world’s biggest stars in all their natural, unaltered glory, including Samuel L Jackson, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Robin Williams, Heath Ledger, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, Cate Blanchett and Kirk Douglas.
Asked what’s important to him in his portraits, Andy says: ‘I don’t edit my pictures at all. There’s no retouching. That is the key thing. When you see a cover of Vanity Fair with Brad Pitt, for example, that’s not Brad Pitt – it’s a version of Brad Pitt. But I want to see what these people actually look like. In 100 years, people can look back at my work and see exactly what these people looked like.
‘I’m also not directing the actor. I’m not saying ‘smile’ or ‘be silly’. I’m having a conversation and engaging them. I lead the conversation to be funny or stupid or thought-provoking. I’m not directing them – I’m capturing a moment in time. That’s what I want my legacy to be. I’m capturing famous people who I’ve enabled to be themselves.’
This year is also the 100th anniversary of the birth of Paul Newman, who died in 2008. Gotts photographed the legendary actor, who he describes as his hero, in 2004.
Read Andy Gotts’ interview with Graeme Green in B+W 304.