Ian McKellen Instagram – Frederic Aranda @fredericaranda is a London-based portrait photographer whose image of me went viral in 2019. His work has been featured in books and exhibitions, most recently at the National Portrait Gallery for the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize. He’s worked with the Royal Ballet, the Kabuki and puppet theatres in Japan, the RSC and the Passion Play in Oberammergau (on my recommendation). Recently he brought his camera backstage at “Mother Goose.” We’ll be posting some of the results in coming days. I’ll let him take it from here, with a fascinating look behind the scenes of a photographer’s process: “I’m passionate about photographing people and have been doing it for 20 years. When I’m not shooting, I often dream about it at night — about how I would stage a group portrait for example, and what I’d capture of each person in it. I compose images in my head all the time. “I’m very interested in what happens behind the scenes, peeking through the curtain or through a half open dressing room door. I love capturing the warm ups, the rising tension and the transformations backstage. I’m curious about how it all works. I admire all the wonderful people you never see on the stage who make it all fit together and work so smoothly. My approach has been to capture without directing, staging or meddling. I wanted them to pretend I wasn’t there. “Photographing Mother Goose backstage has been the most wonderful privilege. Not just because of the world class talent, but also because it’s exactly the joyful balm that we all need right now. I laugh when I hear the jokes, no matter how many times I’ve heard them before. The songs are excellent too. “During Mother Goose I loved photographing Ian’s transformation in his dressing room and also his quick changes in the wings. It takes 3 or 4 people to get him in and out of costume each time, but in record time. Note that he’s tap dancing on stage and doing all sorts of physical feats, and then has to come and get changed each time. There are some amazing moments from the wings behind some of the gauze-screens which really summarise the half on and off-stage feel that I wanted to capture.”