Steve McQueen

William Claxton captures many facets of McQueen's enigmatic tough guy/nice guy personality through his empathetic lens

The photographer: William Claxton holds a special place in the history of American-particularly jazz-photography. Since his early career-shooting for LIFE, Paris Match, and Vogue, among other magazines-Claxton has worked with and become friends with many Hollywood luminaries and jazz musicians, most notably Steve McQueen and Chet Baker (whom Claxton first photographed in 1952 when Baker was young and still unknown). Claxton, whose jazz imagery has graced the covers of countless albums and magazine covers for over five decades, is considered the preeminent photographer of jazz music. TASCHEN has also published Claxton's Jazz seen and Steve McQueen.