She’s a multi-platinum, award-winning artist as famous for her remarkable talent as for her tortured A-list romances.
But photographer Andrew Orth will always remember Taylor Swift as the bubbly little girl next door.
Andrew – an old family friend and former neighbour to the Swift family – has opened up his albums to reveal what has become a breathtaking photo diary of Taylor’s early years, from the ages of four to 16.
Before it all began: Taylor Swift pictured at six-years-old in the portrait album of celebrity portrait photographer Andrew Orth
His photographs – taken over the course of a decade – capture the evolution of Taylor Swift from an adorable white blonde-haired toddler to a striking teenager destined for stardom.
Andrew remembers when her mother and father Andrea and Scott Swift brought newborn Taylor in a bundle to his parents’ home across the fence from their farm in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Andrew’s mother used to babysit for Taylor, and when he came home for the holidays from Los Angeles where he was a portrait celebrity photographer, Andrea would ask him to take family photographs.
Starting young: Taylor pictured with a guitar aged 12, two years before she moved to Nashville
Star in the making: Taylor is pictured, aged five, with tumbling blonde curls, a zip up top and missing teeth
His first shots of Taylor were taken in their family barn when she was just four years old.
Andrew remembered: ‘Taylor was a very pretty little girl, as you can see from her young pictures. She had this white hair, crystal blue eyes, pale skin, and pouty lips. She was just something.’
He said of the earliest photos, which show Taylor smiling in her barn with her two front teeth missing: ‘She had a way about her, she knew she was adorable and she really was the cutest thing in the world.’
Peace out: Taylor, six, was confident in front of the camera at a young age
So cute: Taylor apparently ‘knew she was adorable’ at a young age, according to the photographer
Fresh faced: Taylor, pictured aged five, and 11 showing off her tumbling golden locks
He remembers young Taylor as ‘a huggy little girl’ with an ‘extraordinary talent’.
Andrew, who often photographed children with talent agencies in Los Angeles, recalled: ‘I would tell her parents, “You don’t understand, she’s amazing. She is the most amazing little girl you’re ever going to meet.” ‘
He continued to photograph Taylor until she was 16, after she and her family left Pennsylvania for Nashville, where she would go on to make her name in country music.
