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Watchmen Portraits cover. Click on the image to see more photos from Watchmen Portraits. |
When Clay Enos signed on to become the unit photographer for the hotly anticipated Watchmen film adaptation, he had no idea what was in store. This was the first time the New York photographer had taken pictures for a movie, and he wasn't aware of the immense pressure, controversy, and fandom surrounding the famed graphic novel from the 1980s. But Enos earnestly believes his ignorance of normal set photography procedures and fan expectations might have helped guide his relatively unique approach to the project.
While he took the obligatory shots of the cast and crew on set, he managed to find time to indulge in his personal passion: the portrait. Over the course of the lengthy 106-day film shoot, Enos convinced actors (and crew members) to pose in front of a simple white backdrop in between shots.
"I was enamored with the textures of the film," he says of the elaborate costumes, makeup, and sets. "Watchmen leant itself to such an amazing depth of characters across different eras, and to have hair stylists, make up artists, and costume designers all essentially preparing my models… portraits just seemed like a logical thing to do."
Enos's poignant and extremely detailed large format pictures—which allow you to, according to Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons, "actually count the pores on people's noses"—are now available to both comic and photography fanatics alike in the tome Watchmen Portraits (Titan Books, $50). While the photos are of exceptional quality, the method in which Enos captured these moments can only be described as ad hoc, due to the demanding nature of filmmaking.
"It started out with a large street studio that was dubbed the ‘Clay Cube,' but soon enough it was a 4 by 8 piece of foam core on the fly, looking for natural light, accessing gear on the side," he laughs. "I took this spontaneous approach to it and grabbed whoever was ready. It was always done on the periphery and in between shots."
A series of quiet, black-and-white portraits may on the surface seem like an odd format to document a big-budget action flick, but the Watchmen plot lends itself well to the subdued, earnest photos. Watchmen is one of the first comics to present the super hero as a sad, fallen character; in the story, "masked vigilantes" are required by law to retire and assimilate back into normal society.
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