Albert Watson Shares How He Shot the Famous Steve Jobs Portrait

I often wish I could’ve been a fly on the wall when directors like Steven Spielberg pitched "Back to the Future," or when Ridley Scott said he wanted to direct "Blade Runner." It’s just a super way to see how the masters get the go-ahead from the producers. Often it’s just your personality that resonates with the person, or perhaps you have a great skill that people know you for. The portrait of Steve Jobs that was used for the cover of his biography as well as for the Apple website from the day he died was taken by Albert Watson. In this video, he gives us an idea of what it was like to shoot one if the world’s most well-known tech leaders.

Watson shares his approach, the short dialog with Jobs, and how he reduced the shooting time from an hour to 20 minutes, something I don’t think is easy to do, and not something I like doing. This portrait is one that many people display in their homes and places of work. It’s a picture that Jobs said was the best image that was ever taken of him. Being able to do that as a photographer is quite a special skill to have.

[via Profoto]
 

Wouter du Toit's picture

Wouter is a portrait and street photographer based in Paris, France. He's originally from Cape Town, South Africa. He does image retouching for clients in the beauty and fashion industry and enjoys how technology makes new ways of photography possible.

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4 Comments

There something just sad for me hearing this story. I'm glad he liked the photo.

Pretty powerful, you can't pay for that kind of insight!

Back to the Future wasn't Spielberg. It was Robert Zemeckis.

You are right. Robert Zemeckis directed. Spielberg produced it, although he's most well-known for being a director.