Iconic Photos by a Celebrity Portraitist

Meryl Streep, Robin Williams, Barbra Streisand, Tilda Swinton, Susan Sontag, and Maya Angelou were all photographed by Duane Michals. The American photographer is best known for his black-and-white celebrity portraits, but also for the way he choreographed photo sequences and captioned his images with humorous handwritten notes — often, his captions are as integral to the work as the frame itself. The photographs in his new book Duane Michals: Portraits span 50 years of candid moments, from dramatic shots of a young Martin Scorsese to intimate photos of Eartha Kitt in her dressing room.

The self-taught photographer started his career in his late 20s, in 1958, on a trip to Russia (then the USSR) with a borrowed camera. A decade later, he was commissioned to document the Summer Olympics in Mexico. Michals lives in New York and is set to travel in 2018 next year. Click through to preview the book.

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