Greg Williams Photo Breakdowns: The Stories Behind 100 Portraits

Williams walks readers through 100 of his favorite photos captured during his career as an entertainment photographer in his fascinating debut. His process is simple—no special lighting or a production crew, just a shoulder bag and several Leica cameras­—and his subjects are a veritable who’s who of music and showbiz, including Lady Gaga, Margot Robbie, Lupita Nyong’o, and Sean Penn. Williams divulges tricks of his trade, such as how he made it seem as though Peter Dinklage was walking along the edge of a high-rise rooftop without endangering the actor or using Photoshop (the solution: being creative with props and cropping), but more often Williams cedes control of the “ideal” setup and lets the real, sometimes messy shot reveal itself. The resulting images are some of the volume’s most memorable, including a shot of Johnny Depp in the back of a car, moodily lit by only an internal LED light, or a frame showing Cate Blanchett’s photoshoot crashed by her toddler. Williams’s explanations of his artistic process (“Get the camera as close to the ground as you can, look up, and you start to empower the subject and make it feel larger than it is”) prove accessible and illuminating, and add intriguing context to the images themselves. Photography buffs won’t be able to look away. Photos. (May)