Star on hand to help launch exhibition of Bond baddies portraits
CELEBRITY PHOTOGRAPHER’S WORK ON SHOW IN THE CITY
HOLLYWOOD star Charles Dance has helped launch an exhibition of photographs of James Bond villains.
Andy Gotts’s portraits of actors from the film franchise have gone on show at Phoenix arts centre in the city.
For the launch of Nemesis, Andy, who took a Masters in photography at De Montfort University, gave a talk at Phoenix – and invited Dance along for a question and answer session.
Charles, who played mercenary Claus in For Your Eyes Only, spoke about the experience of working with Andy in a discussion chaired by Dr James Russell, DMU deputy dean for computing, engineering and media.
Himself a DMU graduate, Charles first met Andy at an alumni dinner hosted by the university a few years ago.
Andy said that moment was the spark which helped him secure Charles’s time to shoot his portrait.
He said: “The whole idea for the Nemesis exhibition came in lockdown, when, as a photographer, I couldn’t get out and take any photographs.
“I was putting together a retrospective book looking at my 34-year career and I realised that I had taken photographs of most of the Bond villains. But not all.
“There were six of the actors still living who were missing.”
Over the next two years, Andy set out to complete his collection, using contacts secured throughout his career to convince the performers to pose for him.
One of those was Charles, whose roles have included Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones and Lord Mountbatten in The Crown.
The free exhibition, which runs at Phoenix until April 14, also features portraits of Andrew Scott, Sean Bean, Alan Cumming, Rami Malek,
Javier Bardem and Christopher Lee.
Andy said that the les- sons he learned from his postgraduate degree at DMU still informed his work.
He said: “The reason I did the MA was that I wanted to know more about photographic history and theory.
“I felt, if I was giving a talk about my work, that I might feel a bit of a fraud without that knowledge. “It gave me the space and time to really research, to use the wonderful Kimberlin library and follow my interests. To me, it was invaluable.”
And while the passing of time has left Andy with a number of Bond villains he can no longer capture, there is one he would give anything to portray. “Auric Goldfinger, as played by Gert Frobe,” he said. “He had the knack of being a villain who, actually, if he won, you wouldn’t mind.”
I realised that I had taken photographs of most of the Bond villains. But not all
Andy Gotts