Game of Thrones still photographer Helen Sloan looks back on her work

Game of Thrones is a stonkingly beautiful show. That’s not even a real word, but I stand by it. Whenever you look at an image from Game of Thrones, the odds are good that it was taken by Helen Sloan, the still photographer on the series for all eight seasons. If you’re so inclined, you can sample hundreds of the photos she took during that time in The Photography of Game of Thrones, recently released by Insight Editions.

Image: The Photography of Game of Thrones/Insight Editions

“We had such a chaotic time with the cover of the book – and what would be on it,” Sloan told Inverse. “Everyone had favourites images, favourite characters or iconic moments. But in the end it had to be The Throne. She started all the trouble after all!”

It’s hard to argue with that. Still, you can find all those images of characters and iconic moments on the book’s 416 pages. There are 850 photos included in all, culled from an archive of 1.5 million. Yes, Sloan took over a million photographs during her time with the show, and whittling them down was no easy feat. “I think my brain might have tried to escape out my ear a few times,” she recalled. “Going through hundreds of thousands of images in a short space of time is REALLY quite a feat of endurance and focus. I’m glad we are only doing one volume! I also started to realize the huge impact the show had on my life as I looked through the crew photos and saw all the faces of the crew who have become family to me. I looked at the actors and artists who have shaped my craft. It was really an epiphany moment. This is the job of my life. This is THE ONE.”

We can agree that it’s probably going to be hard to top a job like Game of Thrones. There’s always House of the Dragon? Sloan remained tight-lipped about whether she would be working on HBO’s upcoming Targaryen-focused prequel, although she did work on the pilot for the cancelled show set in Westeros’ distant past. She also refused to talk about any shots she may have from the infamous unaired Game of Thrones pilot. “I’ll never say a word! The images are in a vault!”

One day…one day we will see that pilot.

Photography of Game of Thrones. HBO and Insight Editions. More Warrior.

It’s interesting to think of Sloan’s images being secreted away somewhere, but when you think of how desperate people were for spoilers when Game of Thrones was on, it makes perfect sense. There were lots of times she had to think about the kinds of shots would actually be able to release. “Everything felt like a spoiler,” she remembered, “and it was like that for a lot of the later seasons.”

"And when I did shoot deaths, plot points, new costumes, or new key sets, I was super aware that I was the ONLY person that had that material for a time. That’s pretty nerve wracking! Then when I would deliver the shots to Vicky, the photo producer in New York, she was always like “OH MY GODDDD” because of course she was working remotely in NYC and not on set with me. It was pretty cool when she had those reactions. We both loved the show – which is a bonus of course! It’s nice to be a part of something that you really think is brilliant."

I feel Vicky’s pain.

Obviously, taking photos of the most popular show in the world getting made is an awesome job, but as Sloan remembered, it could be an unpredictable one as well. “One day I can be in a nice toasty studio shooting an easy scene with coffee nearby and home at 6 p.m.,” she recalled. “The next week we could be on top of a glacier at 5 a.m. in minus 25 degrees and gale force winds. We might be shooting a nice scene of everyone milling around Winterfell in the pretty fake snow, or we could be on 55 consecutive night shoots in a muddy freezing field in the middle of nowhere setting people on fire.”

Still, the frustrations sounded more than worth when you consider the caliber of professionals Sloan got to work with. That included costume designer Michele Clapton, who has her own Game of Thrones coffee table book out. “And the wonderful thing about GoT is that every item looks amazing up close,” Sloan said. “No corners were cut. Astounding work. Right down to the tiniest little embroidery details by Michele Carragher. That’s why I did such close macros on the costume shoots. I decided to light Clapton’s costumes like they were a piece of art. They deserved it.”

Photography of Game of Thrones. HBO:Insight Editions. BTS

I love how passionate everyone who worked on Game of Thrones sounds when they talk about it, Sloan included. Clearly, people put their hearts and souls into this show. “For me it’s pretty intense because each image comes with a set of additional memories. What happened on set that day — and I can tell you now — a lot happens to a crew in ten years. We were really a family. So when we look at the images, not only do we remember key moments in the storyline, but we can also be really moved by thoughts of the good old days. Fun times with our GoT family who are all scattered back across the globe again. It’s really still quite emotional to think about it.”

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You can purchase The Photography of Game of Thrones here.

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