The celebrity photographer who refuses to Photoshop movie icons

Celebrity photographer Andy Gotts has snapped numerous stars, from Hollywood titans Al Pacino, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts to promising newcomers like Anya Taylor-Joy and Nathalie Emmanuel. But one picture stands out to him as the most poignant of his career: a portrait of the late Tony Curtis, his face painted with an American flag.

The British photographer recalled years of begging the actor’s agent to set up a shoot. After multiple rejections, he found a phone number for Curtis’ wife, and she picked up. A shoot was arranged for the next day.

That night, however, Curtis called Gotts. The aging star, who suffered from various health issues and was using a wheelchair at the time, said he was feeling unwell.

“(He said), ‘I don’t feel good at all. But I will honor our commitment tomorrow, if you make me one promise,'” Gotts recounted in a video interview. “I said, ‘Anything, anything.’

“He said, ‘Will you make me look like an icon one more time?’ And I said I would do my utmost.”

Tony Curtis by Andy Gotts Credit: Andy Gotts

A portrait of Harrison Ford by celebrity photographer Andy Gotts. Credit: Andy Gotts

With lighting inspired by art history’s Old Masters such as Caravaggio and Rembrandt, as well as cinema greats like Alfred Hitchcock and David Lean, Gotts works with an analog camera and no crew. His portraits are never retouched, unveiling actors’ “facescapes” with all their wrinkles, blemishes and smiles. It’s a style that has remain largely unchanged since he first started.

“If you see a pimple on someone’s head, or a hair out of place — that’s because that’s how they were, sitting in front of me,” he said. “I was capturing that moment when they sat down with me for our conversation.”

Over Gotts shoulder hangs a smoldering portrait of Kate Moss with glowing skin — pores, minute lines and all. Stars like Kate Winslet, Naomi Campbell and Sir Ian McKellen have all embraced his candid style, but his aversion to re-touching images on Photoshop has been an issue for some, he revealed.

One of Gotts’ portraits of supermodel Kate Moss. Credit: Andy Gotts

“There are these two iconic singers, probably the biggest in the world, who have both said to me, ‘Andy, I love your photography (and) I own your photography, but you will never photograph me because you’ll show me as I look.'”

Stripping down

Gotts was once assistant to celebrated photographers Lord Snowdon and David Bailey, though the experience had an unexpected impact: It showed him exactly what kind of photographer he didn’t want to be, he…