Photographer Fondly Remembers Anthony Bourdain: ‘He Was Filterless’

Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s death left many fans and friends shocked, including photographer Miller Mobley, who took the snapshots the famous television personality used on his Twitter account.

The Alabama-born photographer spoke about the quick five-minute shoot in New York in February 2017, noting how Bourdain’s refreshing personality made him stand out from other idols he had met in the past.

The photo was taken as part of a Hollywood Reporter cover story which also featured Jake Tapper, W. Kamau Bell, Casey Neistat and CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker.

Mobley told THR he was excited and nervous to meet the chef, since he and his wife had watching him on No Reservations from season one and beyond, enjoying episodes on the plane ride to Paris about how to savor food and travel.

“Sometimes you don’t want to meet people that you admire, because they could be a let down,” Mobley said. “When I met him, he was everything that you imagined him to be. He was Anthony Bourdain. There was no celebrity thing about it. There was no fakeness to how he was on TV. He was raw. He was filterless. He was totally himself.”

He remembered their photo shoot was quick; they shot five people in about two hours.

“I remember he did have us laughing; he brought some joy to the shoot. It’s not goofy humor, it’s his sarcastic humor.”

And Molly was determined to capturing a timeless photo.

“In terms of mood and feeling, I wanted to get something that felt like it had soul, because that’s what I felt he had. And that’s what I felt he appreciated in life,” Mobley says. “I wanted to get just a moment. I remember we were taking the portraits and he was looking at me and there was just that pause, where he was tapping his fingers and looked down and that’s the shot that I got. And I love it.”

THR‘s Photo Editor-at-Large Jennifer Sargent remembered how friendly he was meeting people on the set of the shoot.

“He was very polite, but not outgoing. I think we were all a little intimidated and excited to meet him, but he was very professional,” Sargent said. “He wasn’t like a loud ‘pay attention to me’ presence at all. He was just a person there to do their job.”

Mobley said he was touched to see fans commemorating the chef by sharing the photo he took on social media and by “the power of the image to come back alive. The simplicity of it can really speak to a lot of people.”

As previously reported, Bourdain was found dead at the age of 61 of an apparent suicide at his hotel room in Strasbourg, France. He was there filming upcoming episodes of his CNN award-winning series Parts Unknown.