Getting the best from someone who “hates photographers”

One of the world’s best known portrait photographers, Albert Watson, explains how he captured the iconic portrait of one of the world’s most recognisable faces, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, knowing full-well that Jobs hated photographers.

What’s evident from Watson’s account are the trademarks of any strong and powerful portrait – the importance of gaining the sitter’s trust, quickly, if time is an issue, and how to effectively direct your subject so as to capture their true essence.

Watson’s image has gone on to become classic and iconic, not just because of who he was photographing, although that certainly helps, but because he managed so accurately to capture the true Steve Job, complete with his trademark intensity.