Photographer captures public and private sides of A-list celebrities at TIFF (PHOTOS)

Jan 10 2017, 10:08 pm

The Toronto International Film Festival attracts an influx of Hollywood’s elite each year, though a glimpse of said A-listers often seems limited to calculated appearances on the red carpet, interviews, or at some fiercely guarded VIP party.

For Andrew H. Walker, Staff Photographer at Shutterstock, TIFF 2016 was the ticket to capturing an intimate look into how celebrities portray their public and private selves.

TIFF celebrity portraits

Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock

celebrity portrait TIFF

Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock

celebrity portrait TIFF

Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock

TIFF celebrity portraits

Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock

Released last month, the series, Celebrity Diptychs, features portraits of 50+ A-listers as they share two sides of themselves, one demonstrating their public persona while the other peers inwards to the part of themselves they usually keep private.

The motivation for the project was simple. My only goal was to have celebrities show competing versions of themselves. Their yin and yang. Their light, their dark. Red carpets never expose a celebrity’s inner workings and I wanted a glimpse of something more human, even if only in the contrived circumstance of a Film Festival Portrait studio.
TIFF celebrity portraits

Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock

TIFF celebrity portraits

Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock

celebrity portrait TIFF

Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock

celebrity portrait TIFF

Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock

TIFF celebrity portraits

Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock

The participants were free to interpret the request how they liked and only provided with a bare table and mark of tape to represent “the dividing line between their two selves”.

Which side is which is up for the viewer to decide.

See also
DH Toronto StaffDH Toronto Staff

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