Book Review: 'The Art of the SNL Portrait’ gives a rare inside look at Mary Ellen Matthews’ work

This cover image released by Abrams Press shows 'The Art of the SNL Portrait' by Mary Ellen Matthews. (Abrams Press via AP)

NEW YORK — Amid all the hoopla surrounding Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary in February, one part of the show received little fanfare: the portraits of the host and musical guest that pop up before and after commercial breaks.

“The Art of the SNL Portrait” rectifies that. Alongside essays and interviews, it gives a rare look at these images in print, gathering together 272 of them in a coffee table book format, many of which haven’t been seen other than the three seconds they appear on air. Despite their fleeting nature, many are memorable: Tina Fey as a group of synchronized swimmers, Alec Baldwin as The Godfather, Nate Bargatze as Jack Nicholson in “The Shining,” holding a teacup instead of an axe.

In his forward, SNL creator Lorne Michaels explains the portraits were used as “bumpers,” adapted from the “Tonight Show” format that used video cards to signal the beginning of a commercial break to local affiliates. He kept them in the show even when that was no longer needed.

“The bumpers are probably the least appreciated part of the show, but anybody who knows the show knows how much they mean,” he writes.

During the show’s 50-year run, only two people have held the celebrity portrait role: Edie Baskin, who introduced the signature hand-tinted look of the portraits, and Mary Ellen Matthews, who was Baskin’s assistant and took over the main gig in 2000. She estimates about 3,872 of her images were shown during the show between 2000 and 2024. She modernized their look and made them more conceptual, adding props.

Matthews works at the same frenetic pace as the show, usually shooting celebrities on a Thursday and doing image selection and retouching in a 48-hour period before the show airs Saturday night. Sometimes they’re finished only shortly before the show ends.

In the book, Matthews recounts how the one-of-a-kind gig is a dream job despite the hectic pace of the show.

“It’s a miracle,” she says in an interview in the book. “It’s every week! As soon as you start to kind of take it for granted, all of a sudden, you realize, wait a minute, this is unbelievable.”

Mae Anderson, The Associated Press