From The Archives – Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Images by Robert Caplin
Some time ago I was assigned to take a portrait of Academy Award winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman for the Los Angeles Times. It was back when he had three films releasing in three months: Before the Devil Knows You re Dead, The Savages, and Charlie Wilson’s War.
Normally when I shoot celebrities it’s during a “press junket”, which is when the production company is promoting a new movie and they invite the press to interview/photograph the cast. They’ll typically rent out an entire floor (or more) of a fancy-pants hotel (this time the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue) and they give me a hotel room to set up some quick portraits. I usually get about 10 minutes to take a portrait….usually less. Also, the celebrities are usually flanked by their publicists who like to give me a hard time and tell me what to do and how to take the photo. Fortunately for this shoot, the publicist was extremely kind and corporative when I asked if there was a chance we could shoot on the roof of the hotel, rather than in a hotel room.
The hotel manager brought my assistant and me to the roof to scout it some good locations and I quickly realized it’d make for some good photos. Philip was kind enough to climb up to the very top and sit on the edge of the building…I actually think he got a little worried as when he was sitting on the edge, when I asked him to change poses, he said, “Um, no thanks”.
All and all, a successful shoot!
Of course I had to get a shot of myself on the edge!
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I love #4 (looking down). It's such a great (lack of?) expression in combination with the setting and the hands clasped.
Stumbled upon your blog at a random computer at PhotoPlus haha.
You have some gorgeous work. Looking forward to checking in on this blog often.