A hidden archive of quick celebrity passport shots reveals intimate, unvarnished moments and a changing Oxford Street, preserved now in a new Phaidon volume.
For more than six decades, it was a cozy spot for celebrities – a small shop on London’s Oxford Street where luxury was not sold, but a series of passport-sized portraits printed in ten minutes or less.
The family-run Passport Photo Service was known for its fast service and portraits of famous clients on the walls until it closed in 2019. Founded by a professional boxer turned photographer, Dave Sharky, and passed to his son Philip Sharky, the Sharky family and their staff photographed images for passports, visas, and green cards for both well-known and those who remained out of the frame.
Thanks to a well-located studio near a cluster of embassies, quick service, and willingness to travel for shoots, around 800 celebrities sat before their cameras, including Muhammad Ali, Madonna, Chaka Khan, Bill Murray, Stella McCartney, Katy Perry, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Tilda Swinton.
“This is a vanishing London,” Sharky said by phone. “When you could open a small business on the stairs and have an office of about 500 square feet. Oxford Street now isn’t what it used to be, and even elsewhere.
– Sharky
Archive and London’s Legacy
To this day the archive has never been publicly exhibited – apart from those who walked into the shop. After its closure, partly due to the relocation of the U.S. Embassy, Philip Sharky turned to the idea friends and family often proposed: making a book.
“Passport Photo Service,” published by Phaidon, contains more than three hundred portraits of celebrities from the 1950s to the 2010s. Sharky explained by phone that while their famous client list is the main draw, the book also memorializes a part of London that is rapidly changing: the redevelopment on Oxford Street, the city’s main artery for premium shopping, has left little room for small businesses.
“This is a vanishing London,” Sharky said by phone. “When you could open a small business on the stairs and have an office of about 500 square feet. Oxford Street is not what it used to be anymore – or anywhere.”
– Sharky
In the past, neighbors on the street included a travel agency, a modeling agency, a school for young girls, and even a clairvoyant, he recalled. In the final years of the business, their studio moved to the rear of the building on North Row after it was bought by a developer; it is now occupied by a hair salon there.
In the early days Passport Photo Service attracted attention with street-front signs reading ‘Ready in 10 minutes’ in the shop windows and portable boards advertising carried by staff during on-location shoots.
Sharky started working at the company at the age of 16. His mother worked as administrator and receptionist, his uncle joined as a photographer, and the family used film negatives in the early days, even in the darkroom. Later they switched to the fast Kodak Veribrom automatic processor, which produced black-and-white images in five minutes. In the 1990s they introduced digital technologies so clients could view their photos online or on monitors. The studio lighting was top-notch, helping to create more appealing shots, Sharky explained.
He described the passport photo as a big “leveler” – almost everyone gets such an image for travel. And while celebrities who visited the studio did not always need dramatic makeup, the photos remained minimalist and honest.
“Most of them didn’t come with makeup artists or PR people, because they had just been at the embassy,” Sharky recalled, remembering the time when Donald Sutherland was rushed through the hall. “He was at the Canadian Embassy, didn’t have a passport, needed to be renewed. He didn’t even have time to take off his coat. He just raised his collar.”
– Donald Sutherland
One exception was Kate Winslet, who in the late 1990s photographed with a small crew during the filming of Hideous Kinky, where her character was required to show a passport on camera. The portrait was taken several months before the release of Titanic, which made her a global star.
Celebrities also loved looking at the wall of fame in the shop, Sharky recalled, when Angelina Jolie came in one quiet day and pointed to everyone she had worked with. Another, unknown actor, returned soon after Sharky moved her portrait to clear the space, leading to an awkward explanation. Some stars used their services several times over the years: Joan Collins in 1971, 1979 and 1988; Sean Connery in 1977 and 1989; Ava Gardner in 1976 and 1987; and artist David Hockney in 1965 and 1970.
Their on-location shoots also remained memorable – visiting Madonna’s and Guy Ritchie’s former home to take portraits “right after they put the kids to bed,” or trips to recording studios to shoot Sting, George Michael, or Eric Clapton. Sharky continues to work in this vein, taking portraits as needed for his client base.
Not all the celebrities they photographed made it into the Passport Photo Service book, and some portraits still live in the Vault. Sharky said they signed non-disclosure agreements only a few times during the years the business operated, and their faces would continue to remain secret.
“One of them was so unbearable that I wouldn’t include him anyway,” he said, laughing.
In the end, the Passport Photo Service book not only preserves memories of the stars but also offers a view of London fading away and of the small studio that once flourished between embassies and the city’s bustling development.