These photographs occupy liminal spaces.

On the one hand, they are intimate; they capture private moments.

On the other, these private moments belong to big names: Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol, Ernest Hemingway. They were taken by Orator Woodward.

Woodward, nearly 90, lives in Palm Beach, Florida. He was born during the Great Depression, under unusually favorable circumstances: His father owned Jell-O.

When Woodward was 7 years old, World War II began.

War was bad generally, but good for Jell-O. Cheerful advertisements praised the food’s versatility. Even sugar rations had little effect on its success. In the 1950s, during wider prosperity, the company flourished.

Like his family, Woodward had a good sense of where the wind was blowing. He sought out luminaries and photographed their working (and personal) lives: He caught Orson Welles’s probing gaze, Françoise Hardy’s jiving, and Salvador Dalí’s curling mustache. He even ventured to Japan in 1965 with Shoji Otake, at a time when few outsiders were welcome, capturing rare glimpses of a culture largely closed off to the world.

Woodward was fascinated by how these artists found meaning and inspiration in the world around them. By studying their passions and creative processes, he unwittingly revealed his own.

Following a bout with cancer in the 2000s, Woodward put down his camera for good. His daughter, Serena Woodward, has been digitizing his work for three years. Both Serena and her father are deeply invested in preserving what matters.