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
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