Mark Robert Halper - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Mark Robert Halper is a Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

photographer noted for the striking human images in his commercial and fine art photography. He has worked in a wide range of specialties including portrait, lifestyle, celebrity, architecture, still life, and fine art.

Commercial photography

Halper has worked with publications such as Barron's
Barron's Magazine
Barron's is an American weekly newspaper covering U.S. financial information, market developments, and relevant statistics. Each issue provides a wrap-up of the previous week's market activity, news reports, and an informative outlook on the week to come....

, BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek
Bloomberg Businessweek, commonly and formerly known as BusinessWeek, is a weekly business magazine published by Bloomberg L.P. It is currently headquartered in New York City.- History :...

, Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...

, French Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...

, Black Enterprise
Black Enterprise
Black Enterprise is a monthly U.S. magazine which describes itself as "the premier business news and investment resource for African Americans" and claims a readership of 3.7 million. It was founded in 1970 by Earl G. Graves, Sr.. The publication is known for its annual listing of the largest...

, CIO, CFO, Entrepreneur
Entrepreneur Magazine
Entrepreneur is a publication that carries news stories about entrepreneurialism, small business management, and business opportunities. It is published by Entrepreneur Media Inc., headquartered in Irvine, California....

, Golf
Golf Magazine
Golf Magazine is a monthly golf magazine owned by Time Inc.. It was started in 1960 by Universal Publishing and Distributing, who sold it to Times Mirror in 1972. Time Inc. acquired it in 2000. It was the world's most widely read golf publication from August 2006 to January 2007. The magazine is...

, Health
Health (magazine)
Health is an American magazine focused on women's health. It was purchased by Time Inc. in 1991. The company now operates as a part of Time's Southern Progress Corporation. The magazine's topics range from diet and recipes to fashion tips and dealing with life issues such as stress...

, Muscle and Fitness, PC World
PC World (magazine)
PC World is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal-technology products and services...

, Runner's World
Runner's World
Runner's World is a globally circulated monthly magazine for runners of all skills sets, published by Rodale Press in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, in the United States...

, SmartMoney
SmartMoney
SmartMoney The Wall Street Journal Magazine of Personal Business was launched in 1992 by Hearst Corporation and Dow Jones & Company. In 2010, Hearst sold its stake to Dow Jones. Its first editor was Norman Pearlstine....

, and The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....

, among others.

Halper's celebrity subjects have included Nobel Prize winners, artists, and athletes, as well as businessmen Bill Gates

Bill Gates

William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...

and Sumner Redstone

Sumner Redstone

Sumner Murray Redstone is an American media magnate. He is the majority owner and Chairman of the Board of the National Amusements theater chain...

; actors Ben Stein

Ben Stein

Benjamin Jeremy "Ben" Stein is an American actor, writer, lawyer, and commentator on political and economic issues. He attained early success as a speechwriter for American presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford...

, Tori Spelling

Tori Spelling

Victoria Davey "Tori" Spelling is an American actress. Spelling became known in the early 1990s for her role as Donna Martin on Beverly Hills, 90210. Spelling then had roles in a string of made-for-television films, such as A Friend to Die For and Mother, May I Sleep with Danger?...

, Randy Jackson

Randy Jackson

Randall Darius "Randy" Jackson is an American bassist, singer, record producer, music manager, A&R executive, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is best known as a judge on American Idol and executive producer for MTV's America's Best Dance Crew...

, Mr. T

Mr. T

Mr. T is an American actor known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s television series The A-Team, as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III, and for his appearances as a professional wrestler. Mr. T is known for his trademark African Mandinka warrior hairstyle, his gold jewelry,...

, James Marsters

James Marsters

James Wesley Marsters is an American actor and musician. Marsters first came to the attention of the general public playing the popular character Spike, a platinum-blond yobbish English vampire in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off series, Angel from 1997 to 2004...

, David Boreanaz

David Boreanaz

David Boreanaz is an American actor, television producer, and director, known for his role as Angel on the supernatural drama series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, and as Special Agent Seeley Booth on the television crime drama Bones....

, Jolene Blalock

Jolene Blalock

Jolene K. Blalock is an American film and television actress and model, perhaps best known for playing the Vulcan T'Pol on the UPN science fiction series Star Trek: Enterprise. The star of several feature films, she is a regular guest star in television films and series.- Early career :A popular...

and Mark A. Sheppard

Mark Sheppard

Mark Andreas Sheppard is an English actor and musician, born in London of an Irish-German background. He is often credited as "Mark A. Sheppard".-Personal life:Mark Sheppard is the son of actor W. Morgan Sheppard...

; model Lauren Hutton

Lauren Hutton

Lauren Hutton is an American model and actress. She is best-known for her starring roles in the movies American Gigolo and Lassiter, and also for her fashion modeling career.-Personal life:...

, chef Wolfgang Puck

Wolfgang Puck

Wolfgang Johannes Puck is an Austrian-American celebrity chef, restaurateur, businessman and occasional actor. Wolfgang Puck restaurants, catering services, cookbooks and licensed products are run by Wolfgang Puck Companies, with three divisions...

, golfer John Daly

John Daly (golfer)

John Patrick Daly is an American professional golfer on the PGA Tour.Daly is known primarily for his driving distance off the tee , his non-country club appearance and attitude, and his rough-and-tumble personal life. Daly remains one of the most popular and intriguing figures on the PGA Tour...

, architect Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry

Frank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...

, activist Erin Brockovich

Erin Brockovich

Erin Brockovich-Ellis is an American legal clerk and environmental activist who, despite the lack of a formal law school education, or any legal education, was instrumental in constructing a case against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company of California in 1993...

; and musicians Gene Simmons

Gene Simmons

Gene Simmons is an Israeli-American entrepreneur, singer-songwriter, actor, and rock bassist. Known as "The Demon", he is the bassist/vocalist of Kiss, a hard rock band he co-founded in the early 1970s.-Early life:...

, Alejandro Lerner

Alejandro Lerner

Alejandro Federico Lerner is an Argentine musician and singer-songwriter. He has written and sang countless songs including several hits, and his fame and recognition spread all over South America....

, Michelle Williams

Michelle Williams (singer)

Tenitra Michelle Williams , commonly known as Michelle Williams, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and actress...

, Tears for Fears

Tears for Fears

Tears for Fears are an English new wave band formed in the early 1980s by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith.Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, they were initially associated with the New Wave synthesiser bands of the early 1980s but later branched out into...

, and Michael Sadler.

Corporate clients have included AT&T

AT&T

AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...

, American Airlines

American Airlines

American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...

, CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

,
FedEx

FedEx

FedEx Corporation , originally known as FDX Corporation, is a logistics services company, based in the United States with headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee...

, Hasselblad

Hasselblad

Victor Hasselblad AB is a Swedish manufacturer of medium-format cameras and photographic equipment based in Gothenburg, Sweden.The company is best known for the medium-format cameras it has produced since World War II....

, UCLA

University of California, Los Angeles

The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...

, MySpace

MySpace

Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....

, Xerox

Xerox

Xerox Corporation is an American multinational document management corporation that produced and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers, multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies...

, Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

, Samsung

Samsung

The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...

, Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...

, Hitachi

Hitachi, Ltd.

is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Marunouchi 1-chome, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company is the parent of the Hitachi Group as part of the larger DKB Group companies...

, Elan Pharmaceuticals, USC

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

, Sony

Sony

, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....

, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Originally established as Kaspare Cohn Hospital in 1902, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a non-profit, tertiary 958-bed hospital and multi-specialty academic health science centre located in Los Angeles, California, US. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over...

, Sanyo-Fisher

Sanyo

is a major electronics company and member of the Fortune 500 whose headquarters is located in Moriguchi, Osaka prefecture, Japan. Sanyo targets the middle of the market and has over 230 Subsidiaries and Affiliates....

, and City of Hope National Medical Center

City of Hope National Medical Center

City of Hope National Medical Center, is a private, not-for-profit clinical research center, hospital and graduate medical school located in Duarte, California, United States...

Teaching and speaking

Besides his own work, Halper has also taught photography at Santa Fe Workshops. He has studied with photographers such as Keith Carter, Andrew Eccles, Paul Elledge, Paul Aresu, Frank Ockenfels 3, Rodney Smith, Nick Merrick, Steve Hellerstein, Jay Maisel

Jay Maisel

Jay Maisel is an American color photographer. His awards include the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Society of Media Photographers, and the Infinity Award of the International Center of Photography...

, Sean Kernan, and Dan Winters. He has also been an instructor for The Julia Dean Photo Workshops, the UCLA

University of California, Los Angeles

Extension, and has taught workshops through his own studio.

Halper has been a speaker for professional photography and design association events, including The Professional Photographers of Canada, The Professional Photographers of Orange County, and The Northwest Arkansas Art Directors Club. He has also been a frequent and popular guest on the Lightsource Podcasts at StudioLighting.net.

Biography

Mark Robert Halper grew up in Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

, where he still resides. He became interested in filmmaking

Filmmaking

Filmmaking is the process of making a film, from an initial story, idea, or commission, through scriptwriting, casting, shooting, directing, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a theatrical release or television program...

in high school, an interest which would transform into still photography in college. Halper graduated
from the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

in 1987 with a degree in
international relations

International relations

International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...

and political science

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

. A year later he began studying commercial photography at UCLA

University of California, Los Angeles

Extension, and started shooting professional assignments in 1989. Halper moved to a downtown Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

studio

Studio apartment

A studio apartment, also known as a studio flat , efficiency apartment or bachelor/bachelorette style apartment, is a small apartment which combines living room, bedroom, and kitchen or kitchenette into a single room...

/loft

Loft

A loft can be an upper story or attic in a building, directly under the roof. Alternatively, a loft apartment refers to large adaptable open space, often converted for residential use from some other use, often light industrial...

in early 1990 as his career continued to grow.

Early clients included the Los Angeles Daily Journal, a newspaper for the legal community for whom Halper would continue to do work during the first seven years of his career. Moving to an expanded studio in 1995, Halper traveled much of the country on assignment for trade publications during the late 1990s. Halper became widely known partly because of his web presence, which dates back to 1996. After the technology crash

Dot-com bubble

The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...

in 2000 and the decline in trade magazine resources, his clientele switched primarily to corporate and advertising clients. In 2002 his business again expanded into a new studio on the same property as his Silver Lake

Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California

Silver Lake is a hilly neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California east of Hollywood and northwest of Downtown Los Angeles. Silver Lake is inhabited by a wide variety of ethnic and socioeconomic groups, but it is best known as an eclectic gathering of hipsters and the creative class.The...

home. Over the next several years he became active in architectural

Architectural photography

Architectural photography is the practice of photographing buildings and similar structures, both inside and out. Architectural photographs are usually produced by Architectural photographers, who are skilled in the use of specialized techniques and equipment...

and still life photography

Still life photography

Still life photography is the depiction of inanimate subject matter, most typically a small grouping of objects. Still life photography, more so than other types of photography, such as landscape or portraiture, gives the photographer more leeway in the arrangement of design elements within a...

, in addition to his now well-established expertise in photographing people.

In September 2007 Halper was married to Jennifer Hunt, a visual
effects compositor and lighter for feature films at Sony Imageworks

Sony Pictures Imageworks

Sony Pictures Imageworks, Inc. is a visual effects and character animation company headquartered in Culver City, California, USA. SPI is a division of Sony Pictures Digital Productions, which oversees the digital production and online entertainment assets of Sony Pictures Entertainment.The company...

.

Halper's featured television appearances include Starting Over
Starting Over (TV series)
Starting Over is an American reality TV show that follows the lives of women who are experiencing difficulty in their lives and want to make changes, with the help of life coaches. It was the first reality TV show to be nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award. Six women at a time work to overcome...

, 10 Years Younger, Fitness Fantasy, and Designing Your Life.

Fine-art photography

In his first book project, Low Overhead (2004), Halper photographed models in a studio with limited headroom. Said Halper, "I wanted to see how people reacted in a space where they didn't have any real experience in how to comport themselves." The resulting lighthearted images were featured from August to October 2005 in the Arclight Cinemas Gallery

ArcLight Hollywood

The ArcLight Hollywood is a 14-screen multiplex located at 6360 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California, in the United States of America. All 14 screens feature stadium seating, and carry a THX certification for optimal sound and picture presentation. The building is located adjacent to the...

in Hollywood

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California

Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...

, published as a mini-book, and released as an Apple Dashboard widget.

In The Bed Project (2005–2006), Halper's subjects dressed as they normally would for bed and brought their own bedding to his studio, allowing Halper to get "a playfulness out of people they wouldn't normally show in front of a camera."

Halper says, "The key to my work is simplicity. I take out everything that isn’t absolutely necessary, until the only elements that remain are those that are entirely essential. The best photographs are usually the simplest."

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.