Meet the photographer taking 'in the moment' Polaroids of Ariana Grande, Nicole Kidman and more of Hollywood's biggest stars

He’s captured Ariana Grande playfully puckering up for the camera, Nicole Kidman’s effortlessly cool gaze and Mikey Madison’s soft smile. And he’s done it all on a Polaroid camera.

If you've ever seen a well-lit and vibrantly colored Polaroid photo of your favorite celebrity at an awards show or after-party, chances are that Andrew Tess was the one behind the camera.

“Shooting Ari, Cynthia [Erivo] and Michelle [Yeoh], I mean, that was brilliant,” he told Yahoo Entertainment about photographing awards season contenders for Paper magazine at the National Board of Review awards on Jan. 7. “[Wicked] was such a moment. It’s part of the zeitgeist and it’s something that I’m so excited and inspired [by]. In capturing them, I felt so excited to be contributing to it in my own way.”

Tess’s appreciation for the art form is apparent in his work. These portraits, while posed, feel more candid than anything else. There’s a real “in the moment” quality to the way his subjects are depicted. “I do feel like the actual artifact, the actual physical object has so much beauty to it,” he said of the photos.

For Tess, exclusively shooting on Polaroid film wasn’t always the plan. He had tried his hand at all sorts of cameras as he was starting his career but none of them felt right. Knowing that Polaroid photography had brought him joy as a kid, Tess decided to return to the style in hopes of recapturing that feeling — and he did. That was 10 years ago.

“I don’t want to say it took off immediately,” he said. “At first everyone was like, ‘Why is he shooting with a Polaroid camera?’ But eventually, people caught on and I think they saw the artistry and intention I had with it.”

In the chaotic environment of awards shows and the celebrations that follow, Polaroid photography offers a welcomed change of pace. The physicality of holding the camera, printed image and Sharpie — so celebrities can autograph their portrait — makes for a considerably more intimate experience than snapping hundreds of photos with a top-of-the-line digital camera, where the images exist primarily on a screen.

“I’m taking a portrait of Julia Fox and she’s in a very quick-paced environment and a lot of things are happening around her,” he recalled of Willy Chavarria’s fall/winter February 2024 show at New York Fashion Week. “And yet suddenly, when we go to do that Polaroid, right then and there, it creates a sense of stillness — especially in terms of the distance in which I need to capture my subjects. It’s obviously a bit closer than a standard photographer. Having [the celebrity] sign the image, giving them the Sharpie, it’s kind of a very grounding experience.”

Taking the photo and getting it signed by the star subject is only part of the process. After scanning the portraits back at his studio, Tess uses the editing tricks he’s taught himself over the years to achieve his signature look.

“So much of the work really comes in my postproduction process, where I say it’s almost like the Polaroid shifts, in some ways, from a photo to a painting with the level of color work that I’m doing to them individually. I really look at them as individual works of art,” he said. “The image itself is so beautiful, but I kind of see the difference from what the physical object is versus the work that has been done to it in a digital space, so to speak.”

Also rooted in Tess’s work is his connection to pop culture. Living in New York and having access to the theater have played pivotal roles in shaping his creative sensibilities.

“I genuinely believe that those experiences impact my sense of color, curating a very specific connection to pop culture,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to create something that lives within the sphere of pop culture.”

Tess also cites Ryan McGinley, a fellow New York photographer credited for making Polaroids art between the late ’90s and early 2000s, as one of his biggest influences. McGinley often spotlighted skateboarders, musicians and the city’s LGBTQ community, as well as A-list celebrities like Brad Pitt and Beyoncé.

Of McGinley, Tess says his photos are “so dynamic and they’re so different from the work that I do and yet I think you can see the humanity in his work as well in a way that perhaps many people can see through my Polaroid work.”

Beyond the camera, Tess's humanity is made no clearer than when he's mobilizing relief efforts for those affected by the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles. He was instrumental in putting together the donation drives at two Ray’s bar locations in New York and setting up the subsequent GoFundMe page to cover shipping costs to Los Angeles.

“In New York, I feel like so many of us felt so helpless and desperate to kind of do something,” he said. “We started planning it on Friday [Jan. 10] and by Saturday morning [Jan. 11], I think the post [about the fire donation drive] had 6 million views. It just had gone so viral in terms of people sharing it and wanting to bring awareness to the cause.”

The 2025 awards season will still go on as Hollywood grapples with the devastating effects of the wildfires. During a time when Tess is typically booked and busy, he’s more concerned about giving opportunities to L.A. locals who need them the most.

“I would love to create work over in L.A. and my hope is not for me to shoot the work, but so that the people who live there can actually have work to go back to and jobs and things to bring livelihood back,” he said. “Hopefully, the awards can bring a ton of visibility to the loss and the devastation, and be a platform in which people can donate money to support these causes in L.A.”