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All eight studies

Self-portrait study

After Martin Schoeller.

Steve Carell

Scotch tape, a tape dispenser, and the one Schoeller that isn’t a Schoeller.

Ryan Parker's re-creation of Martin Schoeller's portrait of Steve CarellMartin Schoeller's portrait of Steve Carell

Original photograph of Steve Carell by Martin Schoeller — see their work. Shown here as the subject of a study; all rights remain with the photographer.

Simple Scotch tape, wrapped around the head the way it is on Carell. The clear curled thing by my ear is the tape dispenser.

Not the catchlights

This is the interesting one. Schoeller’s Close Up series has a signature pair of catchlights that everybody imitates — and for this picture he didn’t use it. It’s more a classic butterfly setup with a silver bounce from below, so that’s what I lit.

I loved the humour of this one, but I also loved not doing another Schoeller mimic, which is pretty predominant.

Three goes at the tape

It took three attempts to get it right — matching Carell’s, and the way the lines ran across the face. Every time I pulled it off my face I thought, what the hell are you doing Ryan. The one on my eyelid was the worst. No marks, though, and this one was a lot of fun.