The Lost Photos: When Hollywood Was Hollywood
The late Julian Wasser had unprecedented access to stars at their most unguarded
Private and candid moments with Hollywood royalty caught on camera are rare today in this age of everything-is-perfect Instagram, TikTok, and publicist restrictions. But in an earlier era, Los Angeles photographer Julian Wasser straddled the worlds of journalism and the bohemian-celebrity era of the 1960s and 70s with ease. He died at the age of 89 on Feb. 8 in L.A., having led a life behind the camera of unprecedented access. His secret? “My dad always had a camera on him. We had this Ryan O’Neal-Tatum O’Neal Paper Moon-esque relationship where we were sidekicks and I would be his assistant and carry his bags,” says his daughter, actress and producer Alexi Celine Wasser. “He was granted access because he was on assignment but the reason he got the shot is, he was always paying attention, and he knew when to get the shot.” He was also fearless. “He was an old-timey-back-east-kind-of-guy, born in Philadelphia but grew up in the Bronx, and he would just use phrases, like when he was trying to tell me something that would toughen me up, ‘That’ll put hair on your chest, man.’ He was a great dad.” (Wasser is also survived by a son, James.)