EXPOSED
TEXT DAMON SYSON | PHOTOS MARK LIDDELL
HOLLYWOOD’S MOST SOUGHT-AFTER PHOTOGRAPHER HAILS NOT FROM MALIBU, BUT FROM THE OUTSKIRTS OF MANCHESTER. FRESH OUTTA ALDERLEY EDGE, CHESHIRE, MARK LIDDELL NOW LIVES FULL-TIME IN LA, AND HAS SNAPPED EVERYONE FROM NICOLE RICHIE TO MISCHA BARTON
Oiginally,
however, Liddell had other career plans: “As
a teenager I was an extra in Coronation Street,”
he recalls. “And I thought, ‘Right, that’s it,
I’m going to be an actor.’ Unfortunately my
acting career never took off. In the meantime
I got interested in taking photos. When I
should have been studying for my A levels,
I was photographing the neighbour’s cat
through my bedroom window.”
After leaving school at 17, Liddell moved to London and ended up working as a fashion photographer in Sydney, Milan and New York. Ten years ago, he was living in London, shooting high-prof ile campaigns for the likes of Fendi and Versace. But in spite of his success, he was feeling dissatisf ied: “I was getting really bored with fashion,” he says. “It’s always the same cycles. I was like, ‘Here we go again: the white shirt story.’”
Out of the blue, he was approached about shooting a series of portraits for the Princess of Wales Memorial Fund and found himself at Kensington Palace having a meeting with Paul Bur rel l. This led to him photographing 15 major celebrities, with the resulting pictures auctioned by Lord Archer at a gala event to raise money for the charity.
Shooting the Memorial Fund portraits took the best part of six months and Liddell practically bankrupted himself in the process. However, it was through this project that he met Nicole Kidman. “It was actually Nicole who told me to come to LA,” he says casually. “After I photographed her, she said, ‘Please come to LA, we need a cool photographer out there.’ She told me she’d help me.”
Deciding to take Kidman up on her word, he
made the leap to La-La Land and – partly thanks
to her introductions – soon established himself as
someone who could reveal the hidden side of highprof
ile stars without compromising their allimportant
images. “To be a good celebrity
photographer you need to leave your ego behind,”
he explains. “Celebrities are celebrities for a reason. The image they project is extremely
important – and there’s a lot of money at
stake. As a fashion photographer working
with models you can insist on everything
being done exactly the way you want it. But
you can’t tell Nicole Kidman: ‘I want you
in 12-inch heels, a mini skirt and a boob
tube.’ You won’t last long.”
Understandably, Liddell refuses to dish the
dirt on his photographic subjects (“For
a photographer, the biggest thing is trust.”),
but he does admit to encountering the odd
prima donna. “Most of the people I work
with are incredibly easy,” Liddell insists.
“I’ve had very few shoots go wrong but – and
I’m embarrassed to say this – it was two
English actresses who behaved real ly
shockingly. They threw hissy fits, and started
screaming at hair and make-up. One of them
came in and said: ‘I feel ugly today. When
I’m in this mood it’ll take three days for me
to get out of it.’ I kept trying to reassure her
but she just stood in front of the camera and
sulked. That was a really tough day.”
With a list of subjects that includes everyone from Matthew McConaughey to Christina Aguilera, who would he still love to get in front of his camera?
“The Beckhams,” he says instantly. “I’m fascinated by them. I’d love to shoot them both. It was quite a big deal when they moved here. Then again, there’s a big deal about something every two weeks in LA.”
Of all the stars Liddell has photographed, the trio he enjoys the closest bond with are Britney Spears, Avril Lavigne and Paris Hilton. “I call them my three favourite blondes,” he says, “because they’ve stayed with me for a very long time and still continue to book me for all their jobs. I’ve been shooting Britney from day one, for 10 years, so I’ve been through the entire journey. I was lucky enough to shoot her engagement pictures, pregnancy pictures, baby pictures, CD covers – everything.”
Working with such celebs inevitably leads to encounters with the less acceptable face of photography. “The LA paparazzi are a nightmare,” says Liddell. “They make my job impossible. My heart goes out to the celebrities who are followed all the time. For Britney and Paris especially, their lives become a living hell because of them.” Dodging the paps is almost as intrinsic a part of Liddell’s job as taking pictures.
One of his most memorable images was
a billboard advert depicting a naked Paris
Hilton, covered in gold body paint, crawling through the desert. With the LA paparazzi
on full alert, capturing the image was no
mean feat: “I couldn’t take Paris out to the
desert, because I knew the paparazzi would
follow us and get the shot before I did. So
I took my manager out to the desert, made
him strip down to his underwear and crawl
in the position I wanted Paris in. I shot the
desert with his shadow in it and we got very
mathematical about where the sun was. We
then went back to the studio, shot Paris in
the same crawling position and linked the
two pictures together.”
If this sounds complicated, it’s nothing compared to the palaver when he’s asked to shoot the first baby pictures of a celebrity’s children. Even getting into the star’s house involves major subterfuge. “The paparazzi all know my licence plate number,” he sighs, “so we have to rent different cars. I make sure my stuff turns up in an unmarked van so they don’t know it’s photographic equipment. Often we’ll go in disguised as a building crew so it looks like we’re going to do renovations on the house. I’ve had my assistants turn up with hard hats on.”
After a decade in Hollywood, Liddell has condensed the best of his work into a volume entitled Exposed. He’s also made his first short film and plans to move into directing commercials and music videos. When he’s not working he loves to travel. “Paris is my favourite European destination,” he says. “I just love the architecture. I think it’s one of the most beautiful cities in the world and I’m inspired by its beauty on every level. Mind you, I could do without the attitude of some of the Parisians sometimes, but the city is beyond stunning. Because LA is so new, it’s really important for me to see beautiful architecture and keep travelling. I can’t stay still in LA. I go stir crazy.”
Although Liddell now lives in a beautiful
house with a swimming pool in the
Hollywood Hills, he regularly returns to
Cheshire. “It’s very posh now,” he says of
Alderley Edge. “My parents still live there
and I visit them twice a year so I get to see
all the new restaurants that have popped up
because it’s now the ‘footballer belt’. When
I was growing up it was a slow little village,
but it’s really had a kick up the bum.
I wouldn’t say it’s quite as glamorous as LA,
but it’s getting there.”
So, after a decade of living in Hollywood,
is there anything he misses about England? “Chips and gravy,”
he answers without
hesitation. Well, you
can take the boy out
of Manchester…
Exposed: Ten Years In
Hollywood (£19.95,
Channel Photographics)
is out now
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