Andy Gotts - Biography

Andy Gotts is a very famous photographer, known for his black and white portraits  of celebrities such as Daniel Craig, Chris Martin and Helena Bonham Carter. I think anyone who is  on social media has come across at least one of his photo's in thier time on the web.  

Early life: Andy Gotts was born in Norfolk. His education included attending Norfolk College of Arts and Technology,  University of Wolverhampton, London College of Printing and De Montford University. 

He first started out because he wanted to raise money / awareness for diabetes, so that the money would go towards research. Today, acaording to research, he has maneged to raise 3 million poinds for charity, just with his photo's. 

Ever since the 1990's he has had his photo's published world wide in many magazines, including: 

- French Vogue

- Italian Vogue 

- Vanity Fair

Andy Gotts was taken on a roller-coaster like journey from day one, when director and actor David Hoffman recommended Brad Pitt. Once Andy had done a photo shoot with Brad (which was only meant to last 10 minutes but due to their genuine friendship it lasted over half an hour), Brad then suggested George Clooney, whom then suggested Julia Robberts, and she suggested Susan Sarandon and it went from there!

Andy Gotts is most known for his coffee table book called Degrees. This was inspired by Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. He started ot by writing to a total of 300 actors asking him to take their pictures. Just ONE actor, Joss Ackland, got back to him and granted him permission. From there, after the shoot, Joss then suggested he should photograph Greta Sacchi, who'd appeared a movie with him. That was all it took; from there he proceeded, different people refering him to other individuals until he had enough photo's for a book. 

I think Andy captures people in different lights than your average photographer, displaying thier personality and playing with elements such as contrast to get his point across. That's what makes his work so appealing.

He has photographed Daniel Craig in this medium shot portrait, showing a bold personality (bold contrast) and a dramatic side.  I think he's been displayed this way due to Craig's most famous role, James Bond. The background is blank, putting the focus on Craig, which enhances the dramatic effect and contrasts with the black clothing he wears.

Here he has captured Helena Bonham Carter's personality in this portrait, demonstrating that she goes for bold roles (the contrast is bold) and roles that are very crazy and theatrical (hense the jokers hat) which I think makes the photo stand out from average portraits.  I think everthing is very bare (even no clothes) in the photo to emphasise the main focus from the main focus, which is the face. Her theatrical image and outgoing side is portrayed in this photo even more by her eyes being wide open, like she is well aware of the fact she is this person, staring right into your eyes, embracing her craziness by wearing the jokers hat.