Bull, Clarence Sinclair. The Man Who Shot Garbo: The Hollywood Photographs of Clarence Sinclair Bull by Terence Pepper and John Kobal.

Simon and Schuster, 1989. First edition, 1st printing, ex-library with fine dust jacket from which spine labels removed, book is good+ with tape, card pocket remnant rear flyleaf, library stamp on top of text block, rear hinge split. Heavy book. 11.4 X 9.3 X 1.1 inches; 256 pages. Clarence Sinclair Bull (1896–1979) was born in Montana and studied with Western painter Charles Marion Russell. He began working in Hollywood in 1918 as a cameraman and became head of the stills department at MGM in 1924 where he remained for nearly 40 years.  Bull helped create a celebrity portraiture style that became the norm worldwide and is especially known for his portraits of Greta Garbo between 1929 and 1941. With nearly 200 photos include many of Garbo, as well as other stars such as Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn, Hedy Lamar, Gary Cooper, Elizabeth Taylor, Vivian Leigh, Jean Harlow, Spencer Tracy, Ava Gardner, Johnny Weismuller, Grace Kelly, Bessie Love, Lee Velez, Edwina Booth, Conrad Nagel, Lucille Ball, Angela Lansbury, Maria Schell, Leslie Caron, Claire Bloom, Shirley MacLaine, et al.  The back of the book includes notes on the photos with brief biographies of the subjects.  Summary:

The Man Who Shot Garbo is a definitive monograph and retrospective of Clarence Sinclair Bull, the legendary head of MGM’s stills department for nearly 40 years. Published in 1989 to accompany an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, the book serves as both a biography of Bull and a visual history of Hollywood’s "Golden Age" glamour.

Key Themes and Content

• The Garbo Connection: The title highlights Bull’s most famous professional relationship. From 1929 to 1941, Greta Garbo was photographed almost exclusively by Bull. The book details their unique rapport, where Bull’s "dreamy and introspective" lighting style helped craft Garbo’s enigmatic, "Sphinx-like" persona.

• The "Star-Making" Machine: Pepper and Kobal explore how Bull didn't just take pictures; he manufactured icons. As the head of MGM’s portrait gallery, he was responsible for the carefully controlled public images of stars like Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor, Vivien Leigh, and Katharine Hepburn.

• Technical Mastery: The text examines Bull’s innovation in lighting and composition. Unlike the "twittery" or avant-garde styles of his contemporaries, Bull was known for a calm, paternal manner that put actors at ease, allowing him to capture a "soul" and "inner mood" in tight, dramatic close-ups.

• Historical Preservation: John Kobal, a premier film historian, was instrumental in "rediscovering" Bull’s work.The book presents nearly 200 high-quality black-and-white portraits, many of which had been relegated to studio archives for decades.

Significance

The book is credited with elevating Hollywood publicity photography from "anonymous studio work" to a recognized form of 20th-century portrait art. It demonstrates how Bull’s lens defined the visual language of celebrity that we still recognize today.