In June 2013, San Francisco-based portrait photographer Winni Wintermeyer received a call from Guardian Weekend asking if he’d hop in his car and drive down to Los Angeles to take a few pictures of Seth Rogen to accompany a recent interview with the actor in their magazine. So, without much more information than that, Winni jumped into his car and headed toward LA’s Four Seasons.
Here’s what Winni had to say about the shoot:
Everything happened very last minute. I jumped into my car the day before (on my birthday—had to cancel all plans for cocktails) and watched all the email exchanges with the PR people. I knew the shoot would be in the morning, but had no specific time. At 6 pm everything was finally confirmed. Seth was gonna do a one hour interview and then the half hour shoot; we would have a couple hours before to set up. The Four Seasons looked very stuffy, but the photo editor requested beforehand to have the bed removed and I brought some backdrops so we could do portraits. I really don’t understand why they always do these in hotels. I guess it’s convenience, but it doesn’t give you many options as the photographer. I couldn’t even find a chair I wanted to use so I put Seth on a milk crate that I use to carry my equipment with.
Seth was a really chill guy (as expected) but doesn’t really enjoy being photographed. The whole shoot lasted 21 minutes, I started with some options out on the balcony with available light for a more natural look and then some environmental portraits to showcase the scenery of a press junket, and then finished with some close up portraits.
I always enjoy what the Guardian Weekend does with the images, they give them a lot of room and do interesting layouts. As they did with my Seth Rogen photographs.