One Hundred-Eight Portraits

by Gus Van Sant

The film director’s debut collection of portrait-photographs. Every subject is photographed in a frontal pose, taken at a medium-shot angle with minimal lighting, thereby bringing out both the chiaroscuro effect of light and shadow and the expressiveness of his subjects’ faces and bodies. Gus Van Sant began taking photographs for the auditions of Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho. The casual picture-taking quickly developed into a full-fledged project, encompassing a Who’s Who of twentieth-century cinema and capturing the exuberance and hedonism of a decade.

Genres: Nonfiction, Photography

116 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Gus Van Sant is an American filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist whose work has long explored the edges of American life, with a particular sensitivity to characters who exist outside the cultural mainstream. His career began with television commercials in the Pacific Northwest, but his creative focus quickly shifted toward personal, formally inventive films that examined marginalized communities, especially within gay culture. His debut feature Mala Noche established many of the themes that would return throughout his work, including unfulfilled longing, a dry sense of humor, and an insistence on portraying same-sex relationships without moralizing. He followed it with a string of acclaimed independent films, most notably Drugstore Cowboy, a raw portrait of addiction, and My Own Private Idaho, a poetic story of drifting young men that became one of the touchstone films of early 1990s American independent cinema. To Die For revealed his talent for sharp, satirical storytelling, while Good Will Hunting brought him into the mainstream, earning broad critical praise and multiple Academy Award nominations. Van Sant's career has remained restlessly varied. He experimented with form in Gerry, Elephant, and Last Days, a trio of films known for their long takes and meditative rhythms. Elephant, inspired by the Columbine High School attack, won both the Palme d'Or and the Best Director Award at Cannes, drawing international attention to his unique blend of realism and abstraction. His work has ranged from major studio productions such as Finding Forrester to bold misfires like his shot for shot remake of Psycho, and he has continued to move between intimate character studies, biographical dramas, and genre defying experiments. Milk, his portrait of San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, earned eight Academy Award nominations and remains one of his most widely acclaimed films. Beyond directing, Van Sant has written screenplays, published fiction and photography, released music, and worked extensively in television, contributing to series such as Boss, When We Rise, and Feud: Capote vs. The Swans. His artistic interests extend across media, but his filmmaking is united by a fascination with outsiders, a lyrical visual style, and a willingness to take creative risks. Throughout decades of shifting critical and commercial fortunes, Van Sant has remained one of the most distinctive voices in American cinema.

Reviews

[todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

i bought this book about 15 years ago. it was already (according the the little round orange sticker from the bookseller) OP (out of print). what i have noticed about this book is that it gets better and better as the years go by. think about this book 20 years from now. portraits or ricky schroder, sandra bernhard, river phoenix, balthazar getty, kevin dillon. . . i could go on and on here. sophia coppola. iona skye. keanu reeves. all from about 1990 give or take a few years. i have a first printing i just noticed. i wonder how "rare" this book is. if copies can be scooped up from eBay. i'm sure the other reviews talk about his use of the polaroid. i won't. what if van sant had recorded just a short bit of audio from each of his subjects. did you gus? like ask each person some question. but what would the question be? the question i always like to ask people is "where do you think these photos will go when you die?" since these were going in a book. . . i don't know if that would have the same impact. but they probably didn't know this was going to be a book. gus van sant probably didn't know either. i just looked it up. it goes for 175 to 350. that sounds about right.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I truly love this book. Gus Van Sant took these large format Polaroids while he was casting for his early (pre-Good Will Hunting) movies. I saw Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho in NY arthouse theaters with my friends and sister; we were high with excitement about the subculture content and innovative style (low depth of field cinematography) and passionate for cinema-both mythical and indie Americana. These photos capture that time. So many amazing faces: Kelly Lynch, Matt Dillon, Amanda Plummer, Dan Hedaya, Ione Skye, William Richert, Flea, James LeGros, Burroughs and Ginsberg, and, maybe best of all, River Phoenix.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

So funny to see the mix of people in here--mainly the Portland ones because I know some of them--Bruno and Walt Curtis and Scott Green and Jeffrey Kyle and dear, dear Stephen Spyrit whom so many of us miss. Fun to see all the famous people too--everyone looks so YOUNG. I especially like the pictures of William Burroughs and John Waters--though they both have such great faces of course they look great in portraits. I do particularly like portrait photography and it's obvious that Van Sant has an artistic eye--these polaroids are simple but quite lovely and arresting.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this style of making and showing pictures: rather raw, the whole picture, with their edges, sometimes over- or underexposed.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Barely compelling as photojournalism. The breadth of style is more distracting than alluring.