‘People would leave their Oscars behind': Tales of a Hollywood party photographer

CNN

01-03-2025

Photographer Dafydd Jones' Hollywood party pictures are littered with Oscars. They sit casually on star-studded dinner tables and are wielded by celebrities before the press. In some cases, the golden statuettes are even being used like tickets to enter Vanity Fair's exclusive after-party.
'I think Vanity Fair had a (policy that) anyone who had an Oscar could come in,' said Jones, who worked for the magazine from the 1980s, in a video interview. 'They had a guestlist as well. But if you had an Oscar, you could demand entry or just be let in.'
'I've also been at parties where people have left them behind absentmindedly and wanted to get them back,' he added.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Jones was flown to Los Angeles from New York or London to shoot major award ceremonies — and the many parties held before and after. The British photographer's new book, 'Hollywood: Confidential,' features almost 80 of his candid shots, showing high-profile guests dancing, smoking, gossiping or even (in the case of 1993 Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei) in the middle of eating an hors d'oeuvre.
The images span A-list events, from bashes thrown by major movie studios to smaller private parties. Some of the earliest date back to when after-parties hosted by talent agent Irving 'Swifty' Lazar's were the place to be seen on Oscars night. But given Jones' employer at the time, most of the photos were shot at Vanity Fair's Oscars party, which was first held in 1994 to fill a void left by Lazar's death.
'It felt more like the end of the whole evening. A lot of the people who came to that party had started off attending the awards, then they'd gone to the Governors Ball dinner and, after that, it was the Vanity Fair party,' Jones said, adding: 'People were just enjoying themselves, relaxing and celebrating achievements.'
At the beginning, Jones said he was one of only three photographers (alongside Annie Leibovitz and Alan Berliner) permitted inside the party. As a result — and thanks to his documentarian approach and 'unintrusive' camera — many of his pictures have a natural, unguarded feel.
The photographer's book captures moments of unadulterated delight: Minnie Driver and Charlize Theron arm in arm; Kim Basinger clutching the Oscar she won for 'L.A. Confidential' in 1998; Gwyneth Paltrow, glass in hand, on the night she was named Best Actress for 'Shakespeare in Love.' Elsewhere, a pair of images show Tom Cruise (who had entered the party via a back door) gleefully reuniting with 'Jerry Maguire' co-star Cuba Gooding Jr. (who had entered via the front door) following the latter's Best Supporting Actor win in 1997.
'I don't set pictures up, and I don't hold people up either,' Jones said of his shooting style, adding: 'Sometimes (celebrities) go to a party and that's it. They don't want to be photographed. They've just spent the last eight hours probably being photographed and interviewed.'
His reputation often helped, however. 'A lot of people, over the years, have been aware of my pictures and knew what they looked like. They knew I wouldn't want (them) to pose or stand in front of me doing anything in particular. So, they're quite relaxed.'
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Jones, in turn, was never starstruck, despite the admiration he held for many of his subjects. His work was not all about the guests anyway; he was just as interested in the spectacle surrounding the parties as the parties themselves.
The cover of his book doesn't feature an A-list celebrity but instead, a microphone-wielding Kevin Meaney, the comedian, as he reported from the red carpet for HBO. Jones also turned his lens on parking valets, publicists, empty Rolls Royces and his fellow photographers as they packed into the press pen or staked out venue entranceways behind velvet ropes.
'There (would be) this huge lineup of press, film crews and journalists, all yelling at people as they go in — to try and get their attention, take a picture of them and get a quote,' Jones said. 'It was that scene that interested me, just as much as the celebrities.'
Several of the images in Jones' book have never been published before. One of them (a rueful Mick Jagger alongside Madonna and Tony Curtis) simply wasn't selected by Vanity Fair's editors, despite being among the photographer's favorites. Others were shot for a magazine that folded before the pictures could be published.
Yet, this latter episode notwithstanding, his images capture a golden age for print magazines, which were then making enough money to fly photographers around the world to cover parties. In the late 1990s, Jones even began witnessing what he called 'photographer inflation' both inside and outside Hollywood events, including Vanity Fair's.
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Jones sensed that photographers' role was becoming more about promotion than reportage. And the influx impacted his work — not necessarily due to competition, but because it was 'the beginning of people wanting eye contact in pictures.'
'I don't mind if people look at me when I'm taking a photograph, but I've never demanded eye contact from my subjects,' he said. 'Then, if you've got a lot of photographers saying, 'Oh, will you look at me? Can you stand there, please?' It interferes with the party and also made it harder for me to work.'
In any case, Jones said he 'never wanted to be a career Hollywood photographer.' He enjoyed passing through LA for big events, but he built a career in the UK, where he worked for several major newspapers and is renowned for documenting the excesses of British high society.
By comparison, Jones reflected, Hollywood's A-list was rather restrained. 'They weren't letting loose in the same way as the English parties,' he said, adding that celebrities are 'almost harder to photograph because they're worried about what sort of pictures' might get taken.
'They're very much choreographed events.'
'Hollywood: Confidential,' published by ACC Art Books, is available now. A selection of images from the book is on show at 45 Park Lane in London until April 20, 2025.