Alfred Ellis

Alfred Ellis spent most of his career in a cramped studio above a London tailor’s shop, the smell of wool clinging to his camera lenses. He never left the building—just stuck his head out the window to yell “Hold it!” when actors below forgot their marks. The Guy Little Theatrical Photographs he left behind are the reason we still know what Ellen Terry looked like in a corset or Henry Irving sounded like with a beard. Open any page and you’ll see why theater people trusted Ellis: no fancy lighting, just a single harsh bulb and the actor’s real face.