Martin Schoeller (born March 12, 1968) is a New York-based photographer whose style of "hyper-detailed close ups" is distinguished by similar treatment of all subjects whether they are celebrities or unknown. His most recognizable work are his portraits, shot with similar lighting, backdrop, and tone. His work appears in National Geographic Magazine, The New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, Time, GQ, and Vogue. He has been a staff photographer at The New Yorker since 1999.

Early life and education

Born in Munich, Germany on March 12, 1968. In his early years he was influenced by photographers August Sander, Bernd Becher, and Hilla Becher. Schoeller studied photography at Lette-Verein in Berlin.

Career

Schoeller started his career in Germany, and came to New York in 1993 and worked as an assistant for Annie Leibovitz from 1993 to 1996. Here he developed his "big head" portrait technique, a term coined by him, of his style of "hyper-detailed close ups", which later gave him worldwide acclaim. He left in 1996 to pursue his freelancing career. Soon his street portraits started getting published in Rolling Stone, GQ, Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, and W. In 1999, Schoeller joined Richard Avedon, as a contributing portrait photographer to The New Yorker since then. Over the years, his large-scale portraits have been exhibited at various museums and galleries worldwide. A book of his portraits was published by teNeues in 2005: "Close Up: Portraits 1998-2005", consisting of 75 tight portraits, put together from over 300 shoots with various celebrities. Another, "Female Bodybuilders," was published by Pond Press in 2008. Stern published a portfolio of his work, "Fotographie Portfolio #54", also in 2008. His most recent book "Portraits", published in 2014 by teNeues, features a 15-year retrospective of his environmental portraiture. He also launched simultaneous exhibitions in Berlin and New York City featuring the work upon release of the book. His work is in the Permanent Collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. He shot the controversial cover of the May 21, 2012 issue of Time magazine about attachment parenting. In his latest book "Identical: Portraits of Twins" again by teNeues he examines 40 sets of identical twins and multiples in his distinctive close-up style.

Personal life

Married to Helen Rutman Schoeller, a graphic designer, in 2000. He currently lives and works in Manhattan, New York.

Honors

Solo exhibitions

Noted Projects

Schoeller's photo books