A SWISS IN HOLLYWOOD
A look at Isabel Snyder's famous portraits
by Karen Guthry
 On the occasion of the 54th International Film Festival in Locarno, the city hosted Hollywood Portraits, an exhibition by the Swiss photographer Isabel Snyder. This is the first European showcase of the artist who was born in Zurich and has been living and working in the United States for fifteen years.
Starting out in New York, Snyder soon established herself as one of the fashion world ‘s leading photographers. Since the mid eighties she is based in Los Angeles, focusing on famous subjects. Her portraits of Hollywood stars have since been published all over the world in magazines such as Vogue, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, FHM, Esquire and Interview. In a special edition, Black & White magazine recently dedicated a feature to Snyder, acknowledging her as one of the most respected photographers o f the year.
Hollywood Portraits fully expresses Snyder’s confident and unconventional style. Her unique approach allows the relationship between photographer and subject to come to the surface. This allows us to glimpse the person behind the public veneer. In this collection we see some of the movie industry’s most influential personalities, however, there is nothing contrived or artificial about them. The images feel spontaneous, almost improvised rather than carefully styled or set up.
The most striking element in each image is its freshness. We are looking at stars in unusual settings and in surprising poses. One feels privileged to discover them in new ways, as they express feelings and emotions that are never given room within the show business promotional machine. Snyder shows us the human, intimate dimension of each individual.
The quality of the 39 large-format prints is stunning. Using state-of-the-art digital printing technology, the photographs have been enlarged to very big formats. The result is a series of luminous prints with deep, rich colors. Most of the panels are diptyches and triptychs, of which some are color combined with black and white and sometimes complemented with an area of bright flat color. The overall effect is of a collection of works with a flawless technique combined with an intimate knowledge of the subjects.
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