DAY 45

PORTRAITS

Comedians

STEVE COOGAN, COMEDIAN AND ACTOR

Back in 1993, Steve Coogan was already a well-known British stand-up comedian. An agent had advised me to add more recognizable people into my portfolio, so it made sense for me to ask if I could photograph Steve for a book on comedians and actors that I was planning to publish. Photographing comedians, however, can be a hit-and-miss challenge—sometimes they are in a good mood and other times not. Often they are more serious offstage and not at all like their onstage persona. So when you consider that this was one of my first celebrity shoots, it’s understandable that I was fairly nervous.

It did not start off well at all. Steve had just discovered that he’d lost his cell phone and was in a bad mood. I managed to cheer him up long enough to get a smile out of him and a few other facial expressions that he was known for at the time, and this was the best image. This along with several other portraits of mine are now in the archives of the National Portrait Gallery, London. It reminds me that while you cannot always have a willing subject, you can learn to be fast and get a shot that works. —SA