![\"Greg](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/web2_Greg-Gorman_Julianne_Moore_Dublin-2004_copyright-Greg-Gorman-copy-2.jpeg\")
Greg Gorman, Julianne Moore, Dublin 2004, copyright Greg Gorman<\/p>\n Greg Gorman, Julianne Moore, Dublin 2004, copyright Greg Gorman<\/p>\n
Few photographers can claim to have worked so intimately with some of the world\u2019s greatest entertainers. Greg Gorman is one of them and for the first time in Germany he\u2019s showing 25 of his colour portraits of popular culture figures including John Waters, Grace Jones and David Bowie at the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin. His exhibition \u201cColor Works\u201d starts today, alongside \u201cPages from the Glossies\u201d, a show displaying Newton\u2019s iconic fashion photography for print that spans four decades. We met Gorman in advance of the opening to discuss Michael Jackson\u2019s creative input in photo sessions, why Leonardo DiCaprio is a great subject and why a photographer also has to play the role of a psychologist.<\/p>\n
Sleek: you\u2019re better known for your black and white photography. Why the transition? Helmut Newton was a close friend of yours, what was your friendship like? One of the things that always amazed me with Helmut, which is very different to my style, is how concise and conservative he was with his captures. From what I understand he wouldn\u2019t take a lot pictures. He\u2019d only use two rolls of film in his shootings. When you\u2019re working with celebrities and fashion sometimes it takes a longer of time, so I personally tend to take many more pictures. But I certainly loved his stark black and white, energetic and S&M-like images.<\/p>\n How much talking do you have to do with your sitters? Which was the most challenging session out of all of these? How was Michael Jackson? What have been the most memorable moments of every decade of your career? In the late 70s I started working for a PR agency and that\u2019s when I shot Bowie for the first time, and Iggy Pop, which launched things but it was in the 80s when my career really took off, shooting for big film campaigns including Scarface. In the 90s I worked lots with the Bond movies and towards the mid 2000s I thought I\u2019d been there and done that and started my teaching. After that doing workshops and making wine; I have a real passion for wine.<\/p>\n When you say you\u2019re a control freak, you mean? So you also do hair and makeup? What can you say about Grace Jones? Her makeup looks great. How about Leonardo DiCaprio, was he fun? And after a series of photo books and making wine what\u2019s next for you? Interview by Will Furtado<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Sleek Art<\/a> offers a selection of Greg Gorman works – to purchase click here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Helmut Newton: \u201cPages from the Glossies\u201d and Greg Gorman: \u201cColor Works\u201d are at the Helmut Newton Foundation<\/a> in Berlin until 22 May 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n More: Mark Flood: \u2018Everyone is both Victim and Persecutor\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
Greg Gorman:<\/strong> I wanted to do something different from what people expected of me and most of these works are actually commissions, some for movies, album covers, some for my personal collection.<\/p>\n![\"Greg](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/web9_Mick_Jagger_Daylight-Wall_Los-Angeles_1984_copyright-Greg-Gorman.jpg\")
Greg Gorman, Mick Jagger, Daylight Wall, Los Angeles 1984, Copyright Greg Gorman<\/p>\n
<\/strong>When Helmut hit his first show in Los Angeles in 1975 for \u201cWhite Women\u201d I went to the opening and met him there that night for the first time. I was always a fan of his work in terms of what he\u2019d accomplished, his classic image making and how prolific he was as an artist. We became friends and I got to know June [Helmut Newton\u2019s wife] and had a lot dinner parties in my home in LA, up I the Hollywood Hills.<\/p>\n![\"web5_Helmut](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/web5_Helmut-Newton_The-Story-of-O_American-Vogue-1975_copyright-Helmut-Newton-Estate.jpg\")
Helmut Newton, The Story of American Vogue 1975, copyright Helmut Newton Estate<\/p>\n
<\/strong>I have to do a hell of a lot of talking. I mean, a part of my job is to play the role of a psychologist and try to get into their heads and be able to bring them to my level and draw out of them who they are as individuals. I just establish a sort of a banter and try to make them feel comfortable and relaxed so that they trust me and have confidence in me and vice versa and that will allow me to do my things and also for them to feel good about themselves. You have to boost their egos a little bit because they\u2019re often much more comfortable playing a character than themselves.<\/p>\n![\"greg_gorman_michael_jackson\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/greg_gorman_michael_jackson.png\")
Greg Gorman, Michael Jackson, Los Angeles, 1987. Available for purchase here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Most of these people were all pretty good but some were a little intimidated before I met them. Bette Davis insisted on meeting one day before the shoot. I\u2019ve only worked with very few super challenging people (to the point that I didn\u2019t like them) and they\u2019re of course not in this show.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>It was an interesting story with Michael. I\u2019d worked with him over the years and he really liked my pictures and I loved working with him, he was a real artist. He took photography very seriously and prior to our shoots and we\u2019d talk for hours on the phone about what we were gonna do, how we\u2019d go about it. He\u2019d have ideas and we\u2019d spring them together. He loved my female and male nudes and he wanted to shoot something provocative but obviously not a nude so that\u2019s how it came about. It\u2019s never been seen before. He was very easy to work with, never in a rush and always very direct.<\/p>\n![\"greg_gorman\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/greg_gorman.png\")
<\/a> Greg Gorman, David Bowie, New York, 1984. Available for purchase here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n
<\/strong>That\u2019s a tough one. Well, I started in the late 1960s by shooting Jimi Hendrix; in the 70s I moved to California and finished college with a degree in film but realising that I was too much of control freak to pursue that career and going back to photography.<\/p>\n![\"web10_Greg](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/web10_Greg-Gorman_Graces-Jones_Close-Up_Los-Angeles-1989_copyright-Greg-Gorman-copy.jpeg\")
Greg Gorman, Grace Jones, Close Up, Los Angeles 1989, copyright Greg Gorman<\/p>\n
<\/strong>I like to know that every aspect of the photograph has part of my imprint in it, from the hair to the styling.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>I don\u2019t do any of that [laughs] but I have my team who reproduce my vision.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Grace Jones has been a very dear friend of mine for the last 35 years or so. I recently went to Jamaica where I did the book cover for her memoirs actually. Just like in any profession a lot a times you get so caught up in the work you do that you end up becoming good friends with the people you work with. So a lot of the people on the walls are my friends and Grace is a very good one. A lot of people have many different impressions of her but she\u2019
\ns very down to earth, with great sense of humour and doesn\u2019t take herself too seriously and yet she\u2019s been able o maintain her mystique all these years.<\/p>\n![\"WEBGreg_Gorman_small](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/WEBGreg_Gorman_small-copy.jpeg\")
Portrait of Greg Gorman<\/p>\n
<\/strong>I worked with him from the very beginning of his career. I love Leo because he was never particularly caught up in being too masculine of too feminine in a picture. He was one of the people who I thought really evolved in front of the camera and was never shy or regimented and that made for a very good subject in front of the lens.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>I guess more books and more teaching. I\u2019m currently making cabernet sauvignon and will probably start making some pinot noir and keep improving on my wine.<\/p>\n