Most Read
Most E-mailed
Print ArticleFEATURE STORY
Richard McLaren's
Celebrity Portraits Command Attention
His wife calls him a "cockney character." But although traces of
an East London lilt rhythm his speech, celebrity photographer
Richard McLaren, conversing by phone from his office in Los Angeles
between bites of lunch, comes across most of all as a whirlwind, a
joyful work junkie who hails from a region all his own.
"By the time I was 18, I'd been around the world twice," he says.
Now 41, it seems he's never let up. Mauritius, Jamaica, Brazil,
Hong Kong, South Africa, Antarctica, Australia: he's been to these
places, perhaps even to all places, to photograph every breed of
famous person you can think of, from Halle Berry to Billy Zane to
Nelson Mandela.
CELEBRITY CACHET
McLaren travels almost like a celebrity himself, with an entourage
of 12, including assistants; a hair-makeup-styling team specially
chosen for the assignment; his wife, Hedda Moye (his indispensable
studio manager); and their two children.
Literally every one of his cameras—Gowlands and Nikons and
Leicas and Canons, you name it (28 cases)—made the trip to
the Australian outback ("I wondered how the prop planes were going
to take off"), and 43 cases went to Hong Kong. All in the interest
of his vision: making "women look beautiful, and men look
rough-and-ready."
It's a vision that has proved enormously successful. Only beginning
to achieve renown in the U.S., McLaren has built up a base of 3,000
magazine clients worldwide. He's quick to point out, though, that
his "vision" should in no way be confused with a "formula."
"I have no specific style. I can achieve any look, anywhere,
anyhow." On a major shoot for a movie studio client, say, McLaren
will use SLRs, medium- and large-format, even plastic
throw-aways.
At day's end, he will come away with hundreds of variously flavored
images of a single celebrity. He may use Photoshop to add
effects—"it can give it longevity of usage." But he adds that
he likes to get a shot "in the camera. I never want to rely on
digital manipulation to 'fix' an image."
McLaren's hair and makeup-styling teams are crucial to his varietal
purpose. Working with action star Kelly Hu, female lead in the
upcoming Scorpion King, McLaren used three different
teams: one to show Hu high-kicking in couture, to pitch to
publications such as Harper's Bazaar; one to show her
glammed up, for the likes of Cosmopolitan; one to show her
sultry and scantily clad, for the men's magazine market. The
resulting images from that shoot appear in upwards of 60
international magazines.
DIVERSITY RULES
Having moved his base of operations to L.A. one year ago, McLaren
is talking about building a studio complex of his own there, but
the prospects sound dubious.
"Every studio has a different vibe, a different smell, a different
look—you don't get stale," he insists. "In the same studio
all the time, you shoot the same pictures." And of course, he'd
rather travel. Hearing him wax rhapsodic about his adventures, it's
no coincidence that an assignment for which he traveled to
war-riddled Croatia to shoot B&Ws of an appealingly disheveled
Pierce Brosnan (above) ranks as his absolute favorite.
Or maybe that shoot was his favorite because he took only 20
minutes to complete it. Breakneck speed is another of McLaren's
fortes. It allows him the benefit of jam-packing his schedule. He
admits: "It would freak me out if I only had to do one head shot in
a day. I wouldn't know what to do with myself."
In fairness, McLaren is not merely a fanatical work fiend. The
speed, the variety, the skill—he's worked up them to with
experience. A job at the age of 16 with a London photo agency, in
which he assisted "all the best photographers in England," also
greatly contributed to his method.
"I spent eight years carrying cases, doing the doggy work. I was
seeing not only how the shots were taken, but with what film, what
lens, what aperture.
"I don't have my assistants do that. I'm in total control of the
lighting, the apertures, the exposures. Nothing happens on set
without me giving instructions."
|
