At the risk of throwing shade at a man while he's down, Steve Jobs lacked a certain aplomb when it came to fashion, signature walks, and, you know, finding his light. Which is why we were surprised to hear that the recently-deceased Apple co-founder was difficult to work with when, among other things, it came to getting his picture taken. "He liked to control shoots, bluntly criticized photographers' work and ideas, and sometimes even yelled," reports Gawker. "But for all his salty ways, Jobs also seemed to impress the photographers for one reason or another: his charisma, intelligence, and sharpness were undeniable."
San Francisco photographer William Mercer McLeod (who photographed Jobs five times, and worked for Apple, helping to develop the company's Aperture software) also had some terse words regarding Jobs. "It was the joke among photographers. He was like the nightmare subject,” he told PDN.
However, Jobs' difficulty was because he knew what he was doing. “From an editor’s standpoint he could be difficult," Scott Thode, a onetime Fortune magazine photo editor, told PDN. “[He was] not unlike a political candidate. The main difference is that he had a real sense of design and how things can look.”
Come on. This is nothing. Child's play. Jobs' antics were nothing compared to legendary terrors on the set. He was hardly Gia at her final Scavullo shoot. For us, if you're not carrying a knife for protection while trying to hide track marks from your photographer, you don't win the coveted difficult-to-work-with descriptive. Sorry. But nice try.
Also, for what it's worth, this is our favorite photo of Steve Jobs. Who knew?