European Film Star Postcards: Photo by Greg Gorman

25 March 2024

Photo by Greg Gorman

American photographer Greg Gorman (1949) is known for his stark, honest portraits of celebrities and his nudes. He also made images for the campaigns of many classic films including Tootsie (1982) and Pirates of the Caribbean (2003). During the last five decades, Gorman portrayed David Bowie, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Barbara Streisand, Orson Welles, Marlon Brando, Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, Grace Jones, Mark Wahlberg, Brad Pitt, and many, many other film stars.

American postcard by Coral-Lee, Rancho Cordova, no. CL/Personality # 112. Photo: Greg Gorman. Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie (Sydney Pollack, 1982).

American postcard by Coral-Lee, Rancho Cordova, no. CL/Personality # 113. Photo: Greg Gorman. Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie (Sydney Pollack, 1982).

French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, no. Star 87. Photo: Greg Gorman, 1983. David Bowie.

British postcard by Underground, London, no. MM 396. Photo: Greg Gorman. Keanu Reeves.

British postcard by Box Office, London, no. BO 007. Photo: Greg Gorman. Keanu Reeves.

Era-defining luscious, black-and-white photographs

Greg Gorman was born in 1949 in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1968, 18-year-old Gorman borrowed a friend’s camera to photograph a Jimi Hendrix concert in Kansas City. His photographs were published in a local paper. He attended the University of Kansas with a major in Photojournalism. He completed his studies at the University of Southern California, graduating with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Cinematography. He was influenced by the work of George Hurrell, Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, and Helmut Newton. One of Gorman’s earliest celebrity shoots was of Alfred Hitchcock, who came to present his film Frenzy in 1972 in a film class at the University of Southern California.

In the early 1980s, Gorman had several big breaks in his career as a photographer. A close friend, publicist Barbara DeWitt - sister of photographer Bruce Weber - got him photo shoots with Frank Zappa and Iggy Pop. When she asked Gorman if he would like to shoot another client, David Bowie, it led to iconic photos and a long friendship. Over the years, Gorman went on to shoot half a dozen album covers for Bowie.

Barbra Streisand called Gorman out of the blue for the photos of a motion picture campaign. In the early 1980s, Gorman created campaigns and did publicity shoots for the posters of such classic films as Tootsie (Sydney Pollack, 1982) with Dustin Hoffmann, The Big Chill (Lawrence Kasdan, 1983) and Scarface (Brian De Palma, 1983) with Al Pacino. During the 1980s, film and music stars graced Gorman's studio daily.

In 1982, he became the house photographer for a signature advertising campaign that he is still doing nowadays, more than 40 years later. Jeff Gorman and Gary Johns created a campaign for the Los Angeles-based eyewear company, l.a.Eyeworks, for which they hired Gorman. The ads were published as full-page bleeds in Interview magazine. The campaign was one of the first celebrity-endorsed 'advertorials' of its kind and became one of the longest-running photo campaigns ever.

Gorman was able to recruit stars for the campaign from his film-studio work. The celebrities photographed by Gorman in their l.a.Eyeworks frames include Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster, Rob Lowe, Whoopi Goldberg, Mickey Rourke and Pierce Brosnan. Andy Warhol personally called the photographer and requested to do an l.a.Eyeworks shoot, which led to the series’ most famous portrait. Gorman’s luscious, black-and-white photographs were era-defining. Gorman's celebrity photos for Andy Warhol's Interview magazine helped his name become further known.

American postcard by Fotofolio, N.Y., N.Y., no. GG2. Photo: Greg Gorman. Caption: Divine, Los Angeles, 1984. Proceeds from the sale of this card benefitted the American Foundation for AIDS Research.

American postcard by Fotofolio, N.Y., N.Y., no. GG7. Photo: Greg Gorman. Caption: Bette Midler, Los Angeles, 1984. Proceeds from the sale of this card benefit the American Foundation for AIDS Research.

American postcard by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no. GG8. Photo: Greg Gorman. Caption: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Los Angeles, 1986. Proceeds from the sale of this card benefit The American Foundation for AIDS Research.

American postcard by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no. GG 21. Photo: Greg Gorman. Caption: David Bowie, Los Angeles, 1987. Proceeds from the sale of this card benefit the American Foundation for AIDS Research.

American postcard by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no. GG13. Photo: Greg Gorman. Caption: Kevin Costner, Santa Barbara, 1988.

American postcard by Fotofolio, New York, NY, no. GG17. Photo: Greg Gorman. Caption: Raquel Welch, Los Angeles, 1988.

No landscapes, no products, no objects

Greg Gorman has always photographed people — no landscapes, no products, and no objects. The style in his black and white portraits is defined by the relationship between the hard shadows and bold highlights. In an interview for PetaPixel by Phil Mistry, Gorman explains his fascination for celebrities: "Working in the movie business, you come up against some tough characters from time to time and breaking through that psyche and getting them to play for your team is a nice challenge. It’s one of the reasons I never really pursued fashion, where I would have people getting paid to do what I tell them. I have to challenge the people I’m shooting to get inside their heads and get that connected portrait."

Gorman continued to do photo shoots for the campaigns of such classic films as Moonstruck (Norman Jewison, 1987) with Cher and Nicholas Cage, Field of Dreams (Phil Alden Robinson, 1989) and Dances with Wolves (Kevin Costner, 1990) with Kevin Costner, Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven, 1990) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron, 1992) with Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann, 1992) styarring Daniel Day-Lewis, and Cry Baby (John Waters, 1990) and Pirates of the Caribbean (Gore Verbinski, 2003) with Johnny Depp. In addition, he has directed the music video Love on Top of Love for Grace Jones.

Gorman does not want to reveal everything in his photographs. In the PetaPixel interview, he said: "When I first started shooting pictures, I used to put the lights right over the camera, and everything looked like an interchangeable postage stamp. Everything was lit. There was nothing left to the imagination. I sometimes look at a photograph that strikes me or pictures that maybe don’t answer all the questions and leave me wanting to know more. So, I find that intriguing element, and that’s also what I do with many of my photographs that interplay between light and shadow. More mystery lurks in the shadows than it does in the highlights."

His work was published in features and on covers of such international magazines as GQ, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Max, Amica, Per Lui, Esquire, Newsweek, Time, Vanity Fair, and Rolling Stone. His monographs include 'Greg Gorman: 001' (1990), 'In Their Youth' (2009), 'Framed'(2012), 'It's Not About Me - A Retrospective' (2019) and 'Homage: A Tribute to Tribal Artists, Philo Fine Arts' (2022).

Greg Gorman did charitable works for such organizations as The Elton John Aids Foundation. In 2006, he began making wine under the label, GKG Cellars, in collaboration with Dave Phinney of Orin Swift Cellars of the Napa Valley. Gorman has been honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award in Portraiture by The Professional Photographers of America, the Achievement in Portraiture Award from the Lucie Foundation and the Pacific Design Center Stars of Design award. Greg Gorman resides with his two French Bulldogs, Gladys and Cyrill, in Los Angeles, California.

American postcard by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no. GG16. Photo: Greg Gorman. Caption: Michelle Pfeiffer, Los Angeles, 1988. Proceeds from the sale of this card benefit The AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

American postcard by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no. GG4. Photo: Greg Gorman. Caption: Kim Basinger, Los Angeles, 1988. Proceeds from the sale of this card benefit The AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

American postcard by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no. GG23. Photo: Greg Gorman. Caption: Robert de Niro, Los Angeles, 1990. Proceeds from the sale of this card benefit Make Love, Not AIDS.

American postcard by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no. F 514. Photo: Greg Gorman. Caption: Bette Midler, Los Angeles, 1990. Proceeds from the sale of this card benefit the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

American postcard by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no. F 528. Photo: Greg Gorman. Caption: Nicolas Cage, Los Angeles, 1990. Proceeds from the sale of this card benefitted Make Love, Not Aids.

American postcard by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no. F530. Photo: Greg Gorman. Caption: Ben Kingsley, Los Angeles, 1992. Proceeds from the sale of this card benefit The AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

American postcard by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no. F526. Photo: Greg Gorman. Caption: Nina Hagen, Los Angeles, 1995. Proceeds from the sale of this card benefit The AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

American postcard by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no. F513. Photo: Greg Gorman. Caption: Al Pacino, Los Angeles, 1996. Proceeds from the sale of this card benefit The AIDS Healthcare Foundation.