Joel Grey

American, 1932

A mercurial, multitalented fixture of the Broadway stage since the 1950s, Oscar-winning actor Joel Grey rose to fame as the sinister Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret, which earned him both the Tony Award for the 1966 stage production and the Oscar for Bob Fosse’s 1972 film adaptation.

Pictures I Had To Take, his first monograph, published by powerhouse Books in 2003, collected work created over a 30 year period. His second book, Looking Hard at Unexamined Things, published by Steidl in 2006, featured all new work and highlighted industrial sites, abandoned buildings, graffiti, wall art, detritus and public works from Los Angeles and New York to Berlin and Venice. For his third book, 1.3: Images from My Phone, Grey spent over a year shooting with the camera function of his Nokia phone and the result is a collection of photographs cut from diverse visual worlds: street art and still life, advertising and architecture, shadows and reflections, natural beauty and urban grit. Grey’s work has been the subject of solo shows in New York, Los Angeles and Berlin. His photographs are part of the permanent collection of The Whitney Museum of American Art and the New York Public Library. Grey is also an award-winning actor in his spare time.

Photo courtesy of Greg Allen / Invision / AP