182 - Greg Williams

A Small Voice: Conversations With Photographers

Greg Williams is one of the most trusted and acclaimed photographers in entertainment—his name and candid portraiture synonymous with authentic glamour.
Greg established his reportage style as a photojournalist in the ‘90s—covering war zones in Burma, Chechnya and Sierra Leone. An assignment for the Sunday Times Magazine gave Greg his first access to the film industry and he has now shot ‘specials’ on over 200 movies, including four poster campaigns for the Bond franchise. Greg has also enjoyed exclusive access to BAFTA, the Golden Globes and the Oscars and is a regular contributor to Vanity Fair and British Vogue.
In addition to his prodigious photographic output, Greg is also a filmmaker, principally with his first person, ‘moving reportage’ documentaries, and a product designer—Greg’s limited edition Leica Q2, in partnership with Daniel Craig, is Leica’s fastest selling large scale edition. His education platform Skills Faster, is home to his highly successful Candid Photography Course, with the intention of ‘democratising good photography’.
After 30 years in the business Greg’s talent and brand relationships are second to none. He publishes exclusives to over 1M followers on Instagram and on gregwilliams.com where he also sells his products and prints. Greg Williams Photography operates from Greg’s studio/gallery space in Mayfair, London.

On episode 182, Greg discusses, among other things:

• The “transformative” impact of having a huge Instagram folllowing.
• Keeping it simple.
• Colloboration with his subjects.
• His free newspaper, Hollywood Authentic.
• Wanting to be a photographer at 6.
• His dyslexa and why it’s good to not have too many options in life.
• Early experiences pursuing photojournalism in Chechnya and Sierra Leone.
• Covering show jumping bunny rabbits and other syndicated stories.
• His entree into shooting behind the scenes on film sets.
• Why he always shows his subjects the picture of themselves.
• James Bond.
• Sharing his knowledge and process on his website and in his courses.
• Why he favours B&W.
• Plans for the future, including some podcasting.

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“I’d done a lot of commercial work; a lot of advertising work; a lot of lit stuff; a lot of set building; a lot of stuff that required a huge amount of production; and for me there was something about bringing that all back in to one man with the cameras that fit into his shoulder bag, walking into a room without anybody else needed other than a subject.”

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