AllMovie

Over the course of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, John Minihan arguably checked in as the most successful Irish photographer at work. A native of Athy, Ireland, Minihan built his reputation with stellar press work, and legendary portraits of western celebrities including The Beatles, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Diana, Princess of Wales. He owed his greatest acclaim, however, to a series of collaborations done with modernist Irish novelist and playwright Samuel Beckett, from which a surprising friendship blossomed. The men met via Minihan's iconic work The Last Wake, a photographic selection that compellingly depicted vignettes of Irish life, with the everyday subjects named by Minihan. It caught the elusive Beckett's attention, who immediately sensed that they were of the same fundamental creative mindset and got in touch with Minihan; the two then set to work on a groundbreaking series of studies called The Beckett Portfolio, shot predominantly in the streets of London and Paris. David Bickley's The Man Who Shot Beckett explores the professional and personal relationship between the two artists, which lasted until Beckett's death in late 1989.