A selfie is now the go-to way of documenting a celebrity encounter.
But 45 years ago – back in the age of the autograph and decades before the smartphone – they were far less commonplace.
It is even more remarkable then that in 1974 a man named Jean Pigozzi, then a 22-year-old senior at Harvard University, thought to turn his Leica M4 camera around to take a picture with Faye Dunaway when he bumped into the actress at an event on campus.
Making a statement: Jean Pigozzi with Lady Gaga in 2012. Pigozzi has been snapping selfies with celebrities since he turned his camera around to take a photo with Faye Dunaway in 1974
Pop icons: Dressed in a striking blazer, a young Sir Rod Stewart poses with Pigozzi in 1978
Fighting for attention: Pigozzi snaps both Mick Jagger and actor Sean Penn in 2009
In the decades since, Pigozzi has snapped hundreds of selfies with famous – and not so famous – faces.
From Andy Warhol to Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall, the celebrity subjects represent a wide range of industries and track the shifts in popular culture.
Pigozzi – who claims to be the inventor of the selfie – captured Rod Stewart in his Seventies heyday and Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was first breaking into the Hollywood scene.
Camera ready: Arnold Schwarzenegger pulls a face for his close-up with Pigozzi in 1977
Starting a trend: The selfie journey started with this picture of Faye Dunaway taken in 1974
More recently he has photographed Woody Allen on the red carpet and bagged another selfie with Jagger – this time with actor Sean Penn.
Collected: The selfies are presented in Pigozzi’s new book, pictured above
The star-studded selection sits alongside snaps of Pigozzi with a Turkish belly dancer, a busload of Japanese tourists, and a stuffed dog.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, Pigozzi said: ‘There were people taking self-portraits for a hundred years.
‘They would put the camera on a tripod with a long tube and a little pump and you’d press it and take your picture.
‘But people doing it the way I did it? I never saw anybody doing that.’
In the article Pigozzi, who takes just one photo with each celebrity, also revealed that his subjects reacted very differently to his request for a picture.
Rocker Patti Smith, for example, ‘went crazy’. Speaking to Vanity Fair, Pigozzi added: ‘In the seventies people had no idea what I was doing.’
A new book, Me + CO, brings this unique body of work together for the first time.
‘Me & Co: The Selfies: 1972-2017 by Jean Pigozzi. Published by Damiani at £25 www.damianieditore.com