Chuck Close: The 2014 Hollywood Portfolio

For its 2014 Hollywood Issue, Vanity Fair called on the services of two legendary photographers to capture the actors, directors and producers of note. Annie Leibovitz lent her services for the magazine's cover, but for the individual portraits, Conde Naste went with a different master of the lens. This is Chuck Close's 2014 Hollywood Portfolio.

Chuck Close has earned the title of American Master, with his modern history of breathtaking large-scale portraits. Early in his career, Close used daguerreotype cameras to produce his one-of-a-kind portraits that are usually printed and displayed on canvasses 8 feet high. This early precursor to film cameras took far longer to prepare with sensitive chemicals, but the results were worth it, as his career grew in leaps and bounds.

For Vanity Fair's 2014 Hollywood Portfolio however, Close used an unusual Polaroid camera rig, although far larger that what most people are used to. This heavy duty 20x24 Polariod was more than five feet high with wheeled chassis, and five feet long with the bellows extended, and was placed only a few feet away from the celebrity's face. The whole ordeal was a bit daunting to the celebrity sitters, as might be evident in some of the actors' more somber emotions.

Some of the celebrity sitters include Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and Scarlett Johansson.

Close's choice to use the instant-result Polaroid instead of the usual drawn-out daguerreotype had to do with his desire for a more collaborative effort between him and the celebrities. Since the Polaroids took only a few minutes to develop, the photographer and sitter could look at the results almost instantaneously. Through this methodology, Close and his subject come to an agreement as to how to frame the next shot until they find the best portrait.

For his subjects, Close laid a few ground rules before they began, including the explicit instructions that they come without any styling or hair or makeup. The results are evident of this directive, but while others might think it takes away from the professionalism of the shoot, it only serves to bring out a more endearing side to these secretive celebrities.

See the full 2014 Hollywood Portfolio as photographed by Chuck Close here. For more of Chuck Close's high resolution photography, click here. For large format photography and daguerreotypes, click here.