They’re the first thing you see when “Saturday Night Live” comes back from a commercial break: Those iconic celebrity portraits, so bold and fun and quirky that they almost seem to jump off the screen.They’ve been a staple of the show since 1975, highlighting each night’s host and musical guest and setting the mood for the entertainment to come.“I like to think of it as a billboard of sorts,” said photographer Mary Ellen Matthews, who has been in charge of the shoots since 1999. “It's just such an opportunity to showcase the host and their personality.”Matthews said Tom Hanks is a frequent host who is easy to work with and up to do just about anything. “I love the absurd. And I love a rubber chicken,” she said of this photo from October 2016.For comedic talents like Tom Hanks, it could be a funny portrait of him carrying a briefcase full of rubber chickens. For “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, it could be a shot of him imitating Gene Kelly from “Singin’ in the Rain.” And for versatile actor Edward Norton, it could be him playing four pop-culture legends — including Marilyn Monroe — in a re-creation of Gottfried Helnwein’s painting “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.”In the composite photo, seen at top, Norton also portrays James Dean, Humphrey Bogart and Elvis Presley.“I thought it would be great for (Norton) to kind of dig into that and kind of play all those different characters, and he just loved it and we really did well with that idea,” Matthews recalled. “Tom Broecker is our costume designer, and he's a genius and I couldn't do it without him. … He really, as he always does, helps make these things come to life.”
Mary Ellen Matthews has been the photographer for “Saturday Night Live” since 1999. She is based in New York.