When I posted Steve Pyke's photos of Sam Fuller today, I realized I've never done of thread of Pyke's portraits. These shots, from Edinburgh in 1983, were the first Pyke took with a close-up lens on his Rolleiflex camera. This became his trademark portrait style.
Isaiah Berlin by Steve Pyke
bromide print, 1990 @NPGLondon
Derek Jarman by Steve Pyke
bromide print, 1983 @NPGLondon
Man, these are awesome!
David Bailey by Steve Pyke
bromide print, 1984 @NPGLondon
Pyke pulls the camera back in this portrait of a fellow photographer. The dog is a nice touch.
Antony Sher by Steve Pyke
bromide print, 1987 @NPGLondon
A great portrait of one of Britain's finest actors.
Two shots of Victoria Wood by Steve Pyke
bromide fibre print, 1993 @NPGLondon
"Only truthful hands write true poems. I cannot see any basic difference between a handshake and a poem."
- Paul Celan
“Hands have a history of their own, they have, indeed, their own civilization, their special beauty."
- Rilke
Helen Mirren by Steve Pyke
bromide fibre print, 1990 @NPGLondon
Stunning!
Peter Greenaway by Steve Pyke
bromide print, 1983 @NPGLondon
Irish Murdoch by Steve Pyke
Oxford, 1991
Remarkable!
Richard Lester by Steve Pyke, 1994
Two shots of Prunella Scales by Steve Pyke, 1994
I love this Steve Pyke shot of Stephen Mallinder & Richard H. Kirk, of the British pop group, Cabaret Voltaire
Sheffield, 1985
Penelope Spheeris by Steve Pyke, 1985
Kathy Acker by Steve Pyke
Greenwich Village, 1984
Two shots of Jean Baudrillard by Steve Pyke
Paris, 1991
Iggy Pop by Steve Pyke
London, 1986
Keith Richards by Steve Pyke
London, 1995
Jonathan Miller by Steve Pyke
London, 1999
Peter Cook by Steve Pyke, early 1990s
Ken Russell by Steve Pyke
August 19, 1985
What a great shot!
Robert Altman by Steve Pyke
London, 1994
Pyke is picking off my favourite directors, one by one.
Paul McCartney by Steve Pyke
London, 1994
The antithesis of the pretty Paul pic that's usual for him.
Here's an even better shot of Ken Russell from his 1985 photoshoot with Steve Pyke
I've tweeted this before:
Steve Pyke's shot of Seamus Heaney at the Royal Society of Literature in London, March 16, 1995
Two shots of Franco Zeffirelli by Steve Pyke, 1994
Steve Pyke's great portrait of the legendary photographer Robert Doisneau, 1990
This is a bit different, but really special:
Steve Pyke's photo of Kurt Cobain on stage in Belfast, 1992
Japanese film director Nagisa Oshima by Steve Pyke
Edinburgh, August 1983
I think this was taken at about the same time as the Sam Fuller pictures that head up this thread. A long thread, by now!
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Remembering Alfred Hitchcock on his birthday 🎂
📷 Bob Willoughby
bromide print, 1964 @NPGLondon
"Some films are slices of life. Mine are slices of cake."
Alfred Hitchcock by Philippe Halsman, 1962
"With his uniform of dark suits, his Victorian manner, he was a relic in his own time. Only Mickey Mouse cut a more distinctive profile."
- @parul_sehgal
Popsie Randolph
Tony Randall & Alfred Hitchcock dining together in New York, November 19, 1962
C'mon, Hitch! Cast Tony in one of your movies!
Remembering John Cazale on his birthday 🎂
Starting out:
With Matthew Cowles & Al Pacino (!) in Israel Horovitz's The Indian Wants the Bronx, 1968. Cazale & Pacino both won Obies for their roles.
Photo: Fred W. McDarrah
Steve Schapiro
James Caan, Marlon Brando, Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino & John Cazale on the set of The Godfather, 1972
John Cazale & Al Pacino in 2, 1974
Another shot by Steve Schapiro
"I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart."
Remembering William Goldman on his birthday 🎂
📷 Terry O'Neill, c. 1990
"Screenplay writing is not an art form. It’s a skill; it’s carpentry; it’s structure."
William Goldman by Peter Jones (but Getty also says it's by Alex Gotfryd; nobody knows anything.)
"You realize you’re not going to be Chekhov, you’re not going to be Cervantes, you’re not going to be Irwin Shaw, who is the crucial figure for me. And so you go into your pit alone, hoping, trying to fake yourself out that this time you will be wonderful."
- Bill Goldman
Remembering Cecil B. DeMille on his birthday 🎂
📷 Earl Theisen, 1940
"I win my awards at the box office."
And, surprisingly from today's point of view, a Best Picture Oscar for The Greatest Show on Earth, 1953
Cecil B. DeMille talking with Billy Wilder during the shooting of Sunset Boulevard
📷 Allan Grant, May 1949
Cecil B. DeMille by Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1945
These shots are from a Life magazine feature that took us through a day in a director's life. Life photographers weren't afraid to use film; I chose these from 150 photos.
Remembering Samuel Fuller on his birthday 🎂
📷 Steve Pyke, 1983
"I was moved emotionally & psychologically when I first saw Sam Fuller’s films, then I went back to figure out how he made them."
- Martin Scorsese
Samuel Fuller by Serge Hambourg
"Sam hasn't changed any. He's still the same nice tough little guy."
- Richard Widmark
Mood
Peter Breck as reporter Johnny Barrett, in Sam Fuller's Shock Corridor, 1963
Remembering Anna Massey on her birthday 🎂
📷 Cecil Beaton
bromide print on white card mount, 1956 @NPGLondon
"What constantly impressed was her fastidious intelligence and capacity for stillness: always the mark of a first-rate actor."
- @billicritic
Anna Massey with her dad, the great actor Raymond, her half-brother Geoffrey (an architect), & her brother Daniel, also a fine actor.
Photo: Philip Townsend, 1964
Anna Massey & Alfred Hitchcock on the set of Frenzy, 1971
Photo: Leonard Brown
"I’m not instinctive. It takes enormous discipline and bravery to get me there."