Orlando: Photography

Orlando Suero (born 1925) started taking photos in 1939, at the age of 14, using a Kodak Jiffy given him by his father. He later attended New York Institute of Photography and worked at camera shops and photo labs, including Compo Photo Colour where he printed the images for Edward Steichen’s monumental exhibition The Family of Man. One of his first assignments, in May 1954, was to spend five days with newlyweds Jackie and Senator John F. Kennedy at their Georgetown duplex, documenting their everyday lives. This was the beginning of a successful career shooting some of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood, among them Natalie Wood, Brigitte Bardot, Michael Caine, Sharon Tate, Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper. Because of his friendly and unaffected approach, his subjects opened up to him and his camera in a way that few others have been able to accomplish. Reproducing images that have been languishing in storage for nearly half a century, this monograph contains many previously unseen portraits of celebrities from the 1950s to the 1980s.