EXCLUSIVE:Dafydd Jonesfirst went to Hollywood in the 1980s to take photographs for Vanity Fair.
He would lurk, unfailingly polite and unobtrusive, and take pictures of the rich and famous.
The parties were truly glamorous then.
Jack Nicholson, Swifty Lazar and Elizabeth Taylor at Lazar’s last Oscar-night party, at Spago in 1993Dafydd Jones
Wall to wall megawatt stars.Jack NicholsonandElizabeth Taylor(never Liz!)
at Swifty Lazars last hurrah at Spago in 1993 is what Im talking about.
I penned the foreword for his book.
Kim Basinger(Lisa Kasteler to her left) with her Oscar at the Vanity Fair Oscar night party, Mortons, Los Angeles. 23 March 1988Dafydd Jones
However, as he didnt tell them when he planned to snap, they didnt all freeze…
They just sort of ignored me.
What, I ask, are the Dafydd Jones rules of engagement?
Just an interesting moment thats not set up and thats just happened, he says.
The thing is, I like to just hang out and not be too intrusive.
Im not trying to take an unflattering picture.
But I used to get sidetracked because also I just wandered around photographing everything, not just the celebrities.
There are quite a few pictures of the press working [in Hollywood Confidential].
You were concentrating on getting a scoop from Kate, he laughs.
It wasnt always the happiest of times, of course.
No, theyre just upset about something.
The guys with him were telling me no pictures the whole time.
He kind of stood looking at the room and no-one dared go up to him…
But I did just did that one shot.
He knew I was taking it, and he didnt seem to mind.
And then I left him alone.
I dont think he stayed very long.
I wonder whether its because their monochrome lends them more a sense of time standing still?
I think its something universal, he answers.
Sometimes its not just people grinning at a party.
Its the one with Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson talking behind Alex Kingstons back.
Those kind of things.
Its a study of manic and wonder, says Jones of Meaney, who died in 2016.
Curtis is leaning heavily into the singer.
Its the intimacy of it that amuses me, plus Jaggers face is, well, a picture.
A copy adorns a wall in my basement home office.
The actor was to marry her three years later.
How were great acting careers sustained?
Well, some are fantastic.
I think if theyre fantastic actors, they last, says Jones simply.
What Hollywood Confidential does is capture little moments in time.
But after World War II, the lady of the manor moved her driver out and moved herself in.
The garage is his studio.
Jones says he likes going to the dark room because of the isolation and the smell of the chemicals.
Does he ever get high from the fumes?
No, he says, slightly affronted by the very idea.
The smell was dangerously intoxicating, but I never got high.
Jones says hand-printing helps the editing process.
It encourages me to look at the dark and shades.
I always say, Black is beautiful, baby.
Hollywood Confidentialis published by ACC ART BOOKS.
