Photographing Bill Gates for The London Telegraph
Last month, I spent four minutes with Bill Gates for the London Telegraph in Seattle.
On the morning of the shoot, I arrived on little sleep with my assistants Chris Wilson and Kyu Han at 7:30 am for our 11:30am timeslot. We were only allowed into the room where he would be doing interviews that day from 8 to 9am to set up the first two of three looks I had planned. Then it was a lot of waiting and pacing and praying and drinking free coffee in the lobby while he did other interviews until his PR team came and got us. Our shoot was his only one that day.
We all stood in the hallway overlooking the Space Needle for several minutes. I tried to comfort my racing mind. I felt good about everything I had control of but so many thoughts were in my head. I recalled the story of Platon photographing Putin and how he had been made to wait for days in a bunker and I was comforted. I stood up straight and tall.
Gates emerged from the conference room to greet my team and I shook his hand and thanked him for making time for The Telegraph. He nodded and sat down for hair and makeup. I switched on my Pocket Wizards. His back to me, I asked him how his day was going as the makeup artist powdered his face. "Good," he replied. I gulped.
He stood up and I told him to stand on the first mark taped on the ground. My assistant called out each minute to keep me on track.
A minute in and I instructed him to stand at the second setup right behind me. He peered at me with a curiosity and a warm intensity.
Another minute went by and I told him we had the third and final shot in the hallway outside. We walked step in step around the corner. I got a smile from him when I asked what it was like to have his scheduled managed down to the minute. He said he's used to it now.
One more minute went by and he asked if we were done and I said yes, thank you, and shook his hand. And I kept shaking as I glanced finally at the back of the camera to see that indeed, I had just photographed Bill Gates.
Photographer, Director, Creative Problem Solver
7 年Beautiful light!