Martin recently sat down with PetaPixel to talk about his photography career, his “Close-Up” portraits and offered some advice to young artists. We have included an excerpt below but head to PetaPixel to read the whole conversation.

PP: Do you think these close-ups are something you’ll continue doing for the rest of your career? Will they stick with you?

MS: Yeah, you know, I made a mistake and stopped doing them for a while. A friend of mine said ‘Oh, you got to reinvent yourself, you’ve done a lot of those.’ Then I started doing them a little bit differently. I even started shooting with an eight-by-ten-inch camera. But I will keep on doing them now.  I think It’s important to have one style. There’s no reason to stop doing it, really, because Richard Avedon took all of his pictures in front of a white background. With an eight-by-ten or something and a medium-format camera. I mean he never changed his style, ever.

He barely showed a color picture. So why would I [stop taking them] now? After I’ve been doing them for fifteen years, why would I think ‘now I’m going to start doing some self-portraits’?

Magazines like them, people like them. That’s telling. Why would Diane Albus now all of a sudden start shooting color or change up her lighting? She did the same thing all of her life. Weegee did the same thing all of his life.

It doesn’t mean I can’t do other bodies of work that I can light differently, or that are very differently conceptually. I’m still in the same position I was fifteen years ago. You get an assignment, and you have very little time with somebody. You’re in a location that you haven’t chosen, they’re wearing something that you might not like. But [with] the close-up you’re in this fortunate position of always walking away with something where nothing else but the person matters.

It doesn’t matter where they are or what they’re wearing. So it feels like an honest portrait that sometimes is impossible to take given the circumstances that you’re handed.

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New York Magazine asked Martin to shoot retiring Yankees closer, Mariano Rivera, for their cover.  The story entitled “Saved” by Lisa Miller, in the issue that is on stands now, details Mariano’s faith and evangelical plans for his retirement. This is not the first time Schoeller has shot Rivera, back in 2006 he was commissioned to shoot the pitcher for GQ Magazine.  Not surprisingly the image, that is included below, also shows the Mariano praying.

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We’re excited to share Martin Schoeller’s new work for Chevron’s AIDS awareness campaign. The ads highlight Chevron’s efforts to provide education on this worldwide epidemic, with a focus on ending mother-to-child transmission within the families of their employees.

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Martin Schoeller portraits ran on 3 magazine covers this month.  For two weeks in a row, New York Magazine’s cover featured one of Schoeller’s images.  First, the weekly magazine highlighted New York artist, Jeff Koons, shot at the David Zwirner Gallery.  Next, they used an image of Michael Douglas as Liberace, shot at the actor’s Central Park West Apartment.  The recently revamped Christie’s Magazine ran a closeup portrait of painter, Walton Ford, who was photographed at his New York studio with Leonardo DiCaprio.

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Martin’s cover for New York Magazine was the subject of a post on The Six Floor, a New York Times blog.   Arem Dupliessis was intrigued by the cover and reached out to New York Magazine’s Director of Photography, Judy Quon, to get an insider’s perspective on the project.  We have included an excerpt below, but head to their site to read more.

What was the initial inspiration behind the image?

We wanted only to hint at Michael-meets-Liberace, since a little goes a long way. Martin Schoeller, the photographer, loved our concept, agreed with the level of subtlety that we thought made sense. Martin’s unique portrait lighting and graphic sensibility made for a terrific combination of reality meets fantasy/artifice.

The touch of makeup above his left eye is subtle, striking and beautiful all at the same time. How did you decide on that approach?

We experimented with the makeup and built it up as we made pictures to see how it was reading in camera. We spoke briefly about which eye, and determined the better eye to be the one on camera right, which would wind up on the right side of the cover — the sweet spot — where a reader’s eye naturally lands. But aside from that it was pretty straightforward.

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For a piece in People magazine that is on stands now, Martin shot the cast of the recently released film, The Great Gatsby.  The group portrait was shot in the Oak Room at the Plaza Hotel, a location that appears in the book.

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Martin Schoeller was commissioned by Entertainment Weekly to shoot rising comedic star, Chris O’Dowd.  The story, that you can read below, ran in their March 29th issue and was shot at Oliver’s City Tavern in New York’s West Village.

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For the second week in a row New York Magazine has featured a Portrait by Martin Schoeller on their cover.  Last week, the magazine chose an image of New York artist, Jeff Koons, shot at the David Zwirner Gallery.  This week, the magazine used an image of Michael Douglas as Liberace, who was shot at his Central Park West Apartment, on the cover.

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Martin recently shot portrait painter Kehinde Wiley for GQ Magazine in his New York City studio. “Kehinde is known for his highly naturalistic paintings of contemporary urban African, African-American, Afro-Brazilian, Indian and Ethiopian-Jewish (Beta Israel) men in heroic poses.”

Click Here to see more work by Kehinde.  Click Here to see more work by Martin.

People Magazine commissioned Martin Schoeller to shoot some of their favorite 2013 Oscar nominees for the issue that is on stands now.   Martin concepted these shoots with Photo Editor Brenna Britton & Photo Director Chris Dougherty to depict the stars in everyday situations, but in clothes they would wear to The Oscars.  Many of the stars also brought their own ideas, like Robert De Niro’s banana or Jessica Chastain bringing her own dog to the shoot.  Pick up the magazine to see more shots from this series.

To license any of these images, please contact AUGUST.  Click Here to more work by Martin.