The Art of the SNL Portrait

I’ve been a fan of Mary Ellen Matthews’ SNL portrait photography, so I’ve been waiting patiently (for years) for this monograph of her work.This book doesn’t disappoint as it provides wonderful behind-the-scenes insights into Ms. Matthews’ creative process in producing the SNL bumper portraits each week. Since taking over as head SNL photographer from her mentor, the legendary Edie Baskin in 1999, these shots have evolved into telling their own stories and with new visual technologies, such as animation.As SNL creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels wrote in the book’s foreword: “Mary Ellen is both an artist and a star.”

Beautiful & fun book.Just what I wanted!

The photos are STUNNING but 2 things kept this from being 5 stars for me:1. A lot of the photos are two page spreads with the subject’s face lost in the gutter (center spine) of the book. What could have been gorgeous 2 page photos end up looking strange because half the image is hidden and it distorts the persons face. Considering the price of the book and quality of the photos I wasn’t expecting such a glaring layout misstep.2. There are no captions on any photo so if you want to know who is in the photo you have to go to the index at the back of the book and look them up. Not a huge deal - just more of a nuisanceOverall it’s worth getting for the ICONIC photos I’m just surprised such a pro photographer would allow the layouts I experienced

Excellent! For all SNL fans!

Disappointed. The layout is horrific. Beautiful photographs ruined by extremely poor design and editing. Tons of pages where the photograph subjects face is split right down the binding gutter. Who approved this monstrosity. Mary Ellen Matthew’s genius work deserves FAR BETTER representation than whatever the heck happened here…. And for $50?!!!?Woof!

I was super excited to receive this book, as I had purchased it on preorder weeks ago. The photos are amazing, but the layout of the photos is unfortunate. So many photos were cut right down the middle. Explanations or photo captions should have been included right after, or before. I’m just your average book consumer, but even I could tell it was bad from the jump. Why not include fold outs? We’re adults, we could’ve handled that. Goodness knows we overpaid for what we received. Too bad - because if she/they were to come out with another book, I definitely would not buy if laid out in the same way.

Book layout is atrocious. Splitting faces on 2-page shots? Making readers flip to the back for captions? Who in the world approved this approach? The photographer should have maintained control of her product from start to finish - hard to believe she was in favor of these presentation decisions.

A book you can open and enjoy over and over.