A tiny Oxford Street studio preserved candid passport portraits of global stars for over sixty years. The new book teases unseen images and personal stories.
For more than six decades, this unassuming London studio has been a meeting place for stars: a small shop on Oxford Street could print passports in ten minutes or less.
Passport Photo Service, a family business, earned fame thanks to its fast service and portraits of celebrities who regularly stopped by. Founded by a professional boxer who became a photographer, Dave Sharki, the company passed to his son Philip Sharki; the Sharki family and their team photographed passport, visa, and green-card photos not only for famous people but also for ordinary clients.
Thanks to a convenient location near a cluster of embassies, prompt service, and willingness to travel to clients, about 800 celebrities sat in front of their cameras – Muhammad Ali, Madonna, Chaka Khan, Bill Murray, Stella McCartney, Katy Perry, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Tilda Swinton.
After closing in 2019, partly due to the relocation of the U.S. Embassy and other factors, Philip Sharki returned to the idea of creating a book – a suggestion from friends and family who had long talked about it.
“Ready in 10 minutes.”
– Passport Photo Service
In Sharki’s recollections, he notes that many stars came without makeup artists or PR, because they had just returned from the embassies. The studio’s archives preserved not only the gloss of the shots but also stories about the stars’ everyday lives in simple passports.
Not all portraits they took made it into the book; some remained in storage, and their faces will stay private. Yet the legacy of Passport Photo Service lives on in this book, which preserves the memory of the small studio that once was the heart of passport photography for many world-famous celebrities.
Legacy in the Book: From Passports to London’s Story
“Passport Photo Service”, published by Phaidon, contains over 300 portraits of stars from the 1950s to the 2010s. Sharki explained by phone that while the famous client list draws attention, the book also serves as a reminder of a part of London that is rapidly changing due to development on Oxford Street.
In his memoirs, Philip Sharki emphasizes that the book is not just a glossy record of star shoots: it preserves stories about the everyday lives of stars in simple passports, prompting reflection on the role of a small studio in the larger history of the city.
Not all portraits made it into the book; some remain in the studio’s archives and will stay private. Yet the legacy of Passport Photo Service lives on – in the memory of the place where stars crossed the threshold and left their mark in simple passports that opened doors to worlds of global culture.