Photograph and words by GREG WILLIAMS
Greg Williams takes pause to consider the bigger picture on images seen small on his social media. This issue: Emma Stone on her way to present best actress at the 2025 Academy Awards.
This picture works for me on several levels. Firstly, its imperfections add to its authenticity. I love the grit of the dimly lit passage. The picture has motion blur and technically it is under-exposed. However, that only adds to its authenticity and drama – pin sharp and bright, I don’t think I’d like it as much.
Then we have the centre point perspective. It’s shot on a wide lens. Emma’s husband, Dave McCary, is walking in front and having him slap bang in the middle of frame creates the perfect centre focus point for the image. The walls to the left and the fence to the right create that vanishing point ‘zoom’ perspective around Dave.
I didn’t do any retouching on the image. Even the traffic cone to the left adds to the authenticity – if I was retouching, I’d have painted it out. Instead it gives a balance to the picture.
Lastly, and most importantly, we have Emma. It was a bit of a hurry to get her from her hotel suite, through a maze of corridors, lifts and kitchens to a back door where she was walking to eventually arrive at the Oscars red carpet. I simply called out for her to look back and I pulled a silly face and got this reaction. I just shot this one frame; I wasn’t even looking through the camera, I just got lucky.
Photographs and words by GREG WILLIAMS
Shot on Leica Q3
Emma wears Louis Vuitton
