Glasses!

The Dutch photographer Philip Mechanicus once called portraits "photos of a nose with surroundings". Portrait photographers love to focus on glasses as surroundings; many subjects use them as accessories, but some as masks. Here are some of my favourite examples.

Bud Cort by Greg Gorman. This was for an ad for l.a. Eyeworks. The tagline: “A face is like a work of art. It deserves a great frame.”

Javis Cocker by Mattia Zoppellaro for Mojo, Dublin, 2006

Ennio Morricone by Guido Harari, 1998. In this masterpiece of metonymy, Morricone's glasses stand in for the man himself.

More metonymy in this portrait of Martin Scorsese by Philip Montgomery, 2020

Oliver Sacks by Nigel Parry-Katz

Bill Nighy by Nadav Kander, London, 2008

Primo Levi by Jillian Edelstein 

Ahmad Jamal by Frank Stewart, 2013. Music photographers love the reflection of piano keys in glasses.

And sometimes it's a chance to insert a self-portrait. Sam Lévin shows up in Brigitte Bardot's sunglasses, 1975

Reflected butterflies in this great portrait of Vladimir Nabokov by Philippe Halsman, 1968

Two portraits by William Helburn for Lady Van Heusen, 1964. First up: Jean Shrimpton Buttoned Up

Next: Jean Shrimpton Unbuttoned 

To end, a sad still-life. Henry Leutwyler's shot of John Lennon's glasses

Portraits by Joe Gaffney

Raquel Welch in Paris; a portrait by Joe Gaffney. Many of his photographs are unfortunately undated, but Gaffney worked in Paris between 1975 and 1985, when he moved to New York. 

Dennis Hopper by Joe Gaffney. Gaffney works as effectively in black & white as he does in colour.

A beautifully-lit photograph of Lenny Kaye by Joe Gaffney

An unexpected pairing: Pete Townshend and Oliver Reed. Having a beer, which isn't unexpected.

Roxy Music (Andy Mackay, Bryan Ferry and Phil Manzanera) photographed by Joe Gaffney at the Hotel Meurice in Paris, 1973

Gaffney's Roxy Music portrait reminds me of this shot by Hans Namuth, a spectacular portrait of Andy Warhol in front of a Rubens painting, 1982

Look in the background of this portrait of Man Ray by Joe Gaffney, from 1975. It's Henri Cartier-Bresson's photo of Man Ray & Duchamp playing chess.

Finally, two Joe Gaffney portraits of the late, great Tim Curry. The first, in black & white, is from 1974.

Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, 1973. RIP to a wonderful actor.