GEORGE PIMENTEL IS HAVING A MOMENT

After 30 years behind the lens, the renowned photographer is celebrating a storied career snapping A-listers far and wide.
By Adriana Ermter
Photography by George Pimentel

 

George Clooney. Jennifer Lopez. Zendaya. Selena Gomez. Justin Bieber. Rihanna. Taylor Swift. Sandra Bullock. Prince. Rachel McAdams. Adam Sandler. Madonna. Ryan Reynolds. Denzel Washington. Beyoncé. Beyond Hollywood’s glitter, these top-tier celebrities have one thing in common: George Pimentel.

 

For the past three decades, the Canadian photographer-to-the-stars has captured humanity during VIP moments. Finding the elusive juxtaposition between celebrity and real life is his trademark; every image tells a story. “I want to show the real person,” affirms Pimentel. “I loved the old James Dean pictures that portray beauty and glamour with humanity. They speak to me. I’ve never been the guy to hide in a bush and jump out and yell. My work is about an energy, being respectful.”

 

His work — that spans more than three decades — was on display in September in a captivating walk down Tinseltown memory-lane in the curated installation “30 Years of Red Carpet Style with George Pimentel” at Yorkdale Shopping Centre. Life-sized in black and white, Brian Cox’s nose is freeze-framed, smooshed into Kieran Culkin’s face, courtesy of Pimentel’s request “to show me some love,” at the 28th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles. Lady Gaga is snapped in living color, her hands on her head, after instructing her security “to leave me alone and then, whispering in my ear, ‘when should I take my hat off?’” Pimentel reminisces about the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) premiere for A Star is Born.

 

And then there’s the shot of Robert De Niro. “I’m a third-generation photographer, so I always thought I’d take over my dad’s studio,” says Pimentel, who graduated from Ryerson University’s Image Arts program in Toronto in 1992. “But my sister Maria was a movie buff and one night during TIFF, she took me to see A Bronx Tale at the Elgin Theatre.” With his trusty Hasselblad film camera (it was 1993) in tow, Pimentel was mistaken as media and shepherded to their designated area. After watching the stars enter the theatre, Pimentel stuck around. His curiosity paid off. Robert De Niro appeared, and Pimentel caught him signing an autograph. “I told Chazz Palminteri — I didn’t know who he was back then — to move so I could take it too,” Pimentel laughs. “And that was it. I knew right then that this was what I wanted to do.”

 

And so, he has, successfully. In a full-circle moment earlier this year at the 2023 Tribeca Festival, Pimentel presented De Niro with a copy of the now iconic photograph. “I told him that this moment, this photo, made my career.”