Portraits by Roy Schatt

Since I don't have a birthdate for Roy Schatt, I haven't been able to post one of my birthday threads on Twitter. So I'll include some of my favourite Schatt portraits here. He's best known for his shots of James Dean, but I find nearly all of his portraits arresting in their simplicity.

This is probably Schatt's best known photograph, of James Dean in New York. It was taken on December 29, 1954 for Life magazine, though it was never published there. Schatt took a whole series of photos at that session, called today the "Torn Sweater" series. "He clicked, I clicked, and the photos clicked," said Schatt.

Roy Schatt's famous 1954 portrait of James Dean walking down 68th Street in New York anticipates two later famous photographs:

Dennis Stock's iconic shot of Dean at Times Square, from the following year, 1955, and...

Don Hunstein's hot of Bob Dylan & Suze Rotolo, used on the cover of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, released in May 1963.

But back to Roy Schatt: here's his wonderful photo of Dorothy Parker, from 1953.

Malcolm X by Roy Schatt, 1964.

An undated photo of Count Basie and Duke Ellington by Roy Schatt.

Sidney Poitier by Roy Schatt, 1957.

This is a really special photograph of Marilyn Monroe from 1957, by Roy Schatt. She was a great actress in front of a still camera, possibly better than in any of her motion pictures. But this just seems to be Marilyn.

Another informal Roy Schatt shot of Marilyn, this time from 1958. A bit more glamour here.

Marilyn nearly always knew exactly where the camera was; she had a special rapport with so many different photographers over the years, right until her last photo session with Bert Stern.

Roy Schatt, Tennessee Williams Backstage at Circle in the Square during "Summer and Smoke", 1953.

Dizzy Gillespie by Roy Schatt, c. 1957.



 

Geraldine Page by Roy Schatt, 1950s.

I love the sub-genre of "X shoots back", where the subject of a photoshoot gets on the other side of the camera. Here's a Roy Schatt shot of James Dean with a Rolleiflex, from 1954.

In this case, James Dean turned the tables, and got this fabulous shot of Roy Schatt. Who knows what kind of a photographer we lost when Dean crashed his Porsche on September 30, 1955.