Publisher Phaidon have published an interesting edit of celebrity passport photos in a new book called Passport Photo Service: An Unexpected Archive of Celebrity Portraits.
The book features never-before-seen archive of 300 celebrity portraits from London’s iconic Passport Photo Service shop on Oxford Street, where actors, writers, musicians, athletes, and other famous faces posed for their travel document photographs.
Phaidon say: Since opening its doors in 1953, Passport Photo Service, an unassuming studio on Oxford Street in London, photographed thousands of people for passports, visas, and green cards – and some of them just happened to be famous. It was a family affair run by professional boxer turned photographer Dave Sharkey, his wife, Ann, and, eventually, their son Philip. Conveniently located near the US embassy and directly opposite the department store Selfridges, Passport Photo Service became the go-to place for passport photos thanks to word-of-mouth and its ‘Ready in 10 Minutes’ slogan, offering instant service before anyone else in the city was able to provide such a quick turnaround. This charming book is a collection of more than 300 never-before-published portraits taken over the course of six decades, including actors, writers, musicians, politicians, athletes, and more.