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Philip Sharkey, the eye behind celebrity passport photos: โ€˜They came without assistants or makeup artists, they were simply themselvesโ€™

9 May 2026 at 04:00

There is a type of photograph that can disarm even the most photogenic subject: the passport photo. That small, noโ€‘frills portrait levels everyone โ€” anonymous and wellโ€‘known, rich and poor, beautiful and not so much. Everyone needs one at some point and submits to the same ritual: sitting up straight before the flash with an expression as neutral as the backdrop behind them. Some people come out unscathed; others feel the image doesnโ€™t represent them.

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Above, a passport photo of Joan Collins taken in 1979 and of Sean Connery in 1982. Below, a photo of Mick Jagger taken in 1976 and one of Kate Winslet in 1997.
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