George Lange Recalls 'Competitive' Steve Jobs and Bill Gates During Rare Photo Shoot Together (Exclusive)

"You're never going to beat me at anything," Lange remembers Gates saying in the photographer's new book, 'Picturing Joy'

Photographer George Lange says he has captured one of the only — if not the only — posed photos of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates together, and he has a surprising story from that day.

“They’re sitting there and they’re so competitive,” he tells PEOPLE of his 1991 photo shoot with the businessmen. “Bill Gates is going, ‘You’re never going to beat me at anything. And he goes, ‘You might tie me, but you’ll never beat me at anything.’ And it’s like, who talks like that?” He would then photograph Gates and Jobs sitting and smiling together on a stairway.

The photographer writes of this exchange, and more, in his new book Picturing Joy: Stories of Connection, which publishes today from Girl Friday Books. In the book, Lange presents an array of photos and stories from throughout his career, with portraits of figures from Andy Warhol to the Obamas, from people in his everyday life to some of the most recognizable names we know.

Lange has always loved capturing people’s happiness in his work, which was a rare feat while he was studying at art school.

“They told me that if someone was smiling in one of my pictures, that it wasn't art,” Lange says. “And everyone at my school wanted to be a famous artist. So I was an outlier.”

His philosophy has served him well when photographing celebrities. A particular moment of happiness occurred when he photographed Jim Carrey, who would often invite children from the Make-A-Wish foundation to join him. During one shoot, Carrey let one of the kids take a picture of him.

“The room got silent,” Lange recalls. “[We were] quiet and nervous because we didn't know what was going to happen and would this kid have the confidence to tell him to do anything? And then he just burst out, ‘Give it to me, Jimmy!’ and hit the button. And we all just died. We are all just on the floor crying and laughing and Jim is just screaming…those are the moments that we live for.”

Lange also believes in what he calls “black key” moments, where the unexpected can happen during a photoshoot. When Lange arrived to photograph Sophia Loren for Allure, the actress allowed him to take a picture of her while she was still putting on her makeup.

Related: Sophia Loren’s Recovery Continues to Go ‘Very Well’ Nearly 6 Weeks After Actress Fell: Manager (Exclusive)

On another instance, when Lange was sent to photograph Spike Lee in Brooklyn, he noticed some local children playing outside and invited them to get into the picture.

“The thing I love about this picture is Spike,” Lange says. “I love Spike. I think he's an extraordinary director, an extraordinary person…but when you photograph him, it’s hard for him to share that. It doesn't come through a lot of the time…but when I got him around all those kids, there's this sweetness that comes out in that picture that's so nice.”

Lange has stated in a previous interview with PEOPLE that he typically doesn't "photograph groups that well." When he took pictures of the Friends cast in 1995, he had the cast pose in circles hung on the walls and simply told them to “hold each other” — it turned out to be one of his most successful group photos.

“I wasn't interested in the characters that they created as much as who they were,” he says.

Related: How to Watch Every Episode of Friends on Streaming

Lange has also been able to create powerful portraits, such as of lawyer and educator Anita Hill, as well as Barack and Michelle Obama, which proved to be a memorable experience.

“That was one of the few shoots that I really was a little starstruck,” he says. Lange photographed the Obamas in a Columbus nursing home that they were visiting. When he set up his makeshift studio, the power went out, since the electricity was not made for his lights set-up.

“I’m doing pictures of him and Michelle and the power goes out,” Lange says. “But there’s still light coming from behind. So I just keep shooting and that became the most interesting picture, I think.”

Lange has also captured interesting celebrity pairings. He photographed Jimmy and Warren Buffett for Fortune and had the two dress up as each other, which was “just priceless.”

Related: Jimmy Buffett's Final Days Were Filled with Laughter, Says Sister: 'He Brought Joy to So Many' (Exclusive)

He also went by limo with Paul Simon to visit LL Cool J when Simon was working on his album Graceland, who was living in his grandmother’s basement at the time.

“We go in the basement and he's there with his friend," Lange says. "And they start playing music for each other. And Paul Simon's playing all these African rhythms that he's really into. And LL Cool J's playing doo-wop, which is what Paul Simon cut his teeth on…the whole time the grandmother keeps yelling down the steps. She goes, ‘Turn it down, turn it down!’ It was insane.”

Related: LL Cool J Reveals the Sweet Reason He Lent His Kehinde Wiley Portrait to the Smithsonian (Exclusive)

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Lange also shares photographs of non-celebrities in his book — people from his everyday life that he photographs in the “exact same way,” and with similar results of joy.

“They give me themselves for a moment, to share and to capture something,” Lange says. “And it’s such a privilege.”

Picturing Joy: Stories of Connection is out now. 

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