Philip Sharkey, the eye behind celebrity passport photos: ‘They came without assistants or makeup artists, they were simply themselves’
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, no‑frills portrait levels everyone — anonymous and well‑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 doesn’t represent them.

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