»I first thought, what's that, 300 photos of water towers [by Bernd and Hilla Becher]. But then the penny dropped and I got this approach of totally reduced photos. I have tried to translate it into portraits, as I'm very concerned with authentic, objective images. It is also a democratic point of view as all faces are special«.

He had them all in front of his lens: from Cate Blanchett, Christopher Walken, Dolly Parton and George Clooney to Rihanna, Willem Dafoe, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Martin Schoeller, one of the most important contemporary portrait photographers, has been producing distinctive close-ups of politicians, sports stars, film and music icons for over twenty years – staged in bright, unforgiving light.