I recently had the chance to visit one one the limited time exhibitions down at Gulf Photo Plus in Dubai.
It was by the famous portrait photographer Gregory Heisler. This was his first showcase of his work of his 50 iconic portraits of celebrities, athletes, and world leaders. Included in the exhibition was famous portrait of President George H.W. Bush (in interesting story which can be read elsewhere resulted in the cancellation of Heisler’s White House clearance).
Heisler has produced many cover pictures for Time magazine. A number of these were for Man, Person, or People of the Year Awards.
His exhibition included moving and emotional pictures of the post 9/11 ‘Time’ magazine cover of Rudolph Giuliani. Others included portraits of Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts, Hillary Clinton, Michael Phelps, Muhammad Ali, Hugh Grant etc. One very interesting portrait was of O. J. Simpson sat on a chair looking into a mirror.
I found myself staring deep into the various pictures expecting some of the people to almost jump out of the frame. Some of the black and white images had a very surreal feel with the deepest blacks and shadows adding to the feel of the image. The image on the front of his book is one such example.
I would love to have been a fly on the wall watching how he delicately sets his lighting to show the best (or worst) qualities of each subject. I wonder if some of his subjects got inpatient, or if they were all all willing as Heisler spent hours getting his set-up just right.
Heislers website can be found here:
50 Portraits
Heisler has also published a book detailing his most famous portraits as seen in his exhibition (above).
His exhibition is over now, but I wish I could take more time to look over the images again. I am sure I would read more into each image after every visit.
O.C.A. BA (hons) Photography Degree Course 