Michael Grecco is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 celebrity photographer. While studying filmmaking and photography

Photography

Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...

 at Boston University

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

, Grecco began working freelance for the Associated Press

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

 as a photojournalist. During that time, he also began his career as a magazine photographer, which has included an extensive body of work for various national magazines including Time

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

and Newsweek

Newsweek

Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...

. As a staff photographer for daily metropolitan newspaper the Boston Herald

Boston Herald

The Boston Herald is a daily newspaper that serves Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and its surrounding area. It was started in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States...

, he won numerous Boston Press Photographers awards, most notably for his coverage of Hurricane Gloria

Hurricane Gloria

Hurricane Gloria was a powerful Cape Verde-type hurricane that formed during the 1985 Atlantic hurricane season and prowled the Atlantic Ocean from September 16 to September 28. Gloria reached Category 4 status on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale near the Bahamas, but weakened significantly...

 in 1985.

As a regular contributor to People

People (magazine)

In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...

, Grecco made his transition from hard-news photojournalism to photographic coverage of celebrity-driven events, including the Golden Globes

Golden Globe Award

The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...

, the Emmy Awards and the Academy Awards

Academy Awards

An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

. Seeking more personal interaction with his subjects, he used this experience to launch his current career as a celebrity portrait photographer.

Since 1992, Grecco has been regularly shooting magazine covers for Time

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

, Wired

Wired (magazine)

Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...

, Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...

, ESPN

ESPN

Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....

, People

People (magazine)

In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...

and others. His celebrity portrait subjects have included Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese

Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...

, Hugh Hefner

Hugh Hefner

Hugh Marston "Hef" Hefner is an American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises.-Early life:...

, Robert Duvall

Robert Duvall

Robert Selden Duvall is an American actor and director. He has won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and a BAFTA over the course of his career....

, Lucy Liu

Lucy Liu

Lucy Alexis Liu is an American actress and film producer. She became known for playing the role of the vicious and ill-mannered Ling Woo in the television series Ally McBeal , and has also appeared in several Hollywood films including Charlie's Angels, Chicago, Kill Bill, and Kung Fu Panda.-Early...

, Will Ferrell

Will Ferrell

John William "Will" Ferrell is an American comedian, impressionist, actor, and writer. Ferrell first established himself in the late 1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, and has subsequently starred in the comedy films Old School, Elf, Anchorman, Talladega...

, Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...

, Christina Applegate

Christina Applegate

Christina Applegate is an American actress. She is best known for playing Kelly Bundy on the Fox sitcom Married... with Children. Since then, she has established a film and television career, winning a Primetime Emmy and earning Tony and Golden Globe nominations...

, Ben Stiller

Ben Stiller

Benjamin Edward "Ben" Stiller is an American comedian, actor, writer, film director, and producer. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara....

, Owen Wilson

Owen Wilson

Owen Cunningham Wilson is an American actor and writer, known for his roles in the films The Haunting, The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Wedding Crashers, You, Me and Dupree, Bottle Rocket, the Cars series, The Darjeeling Limited, Marley & Me, Midnight in Paris, Shanghai Noon,...

, Penelope Cruz

Penélope Cruz

Penélope Cruz Sánchez is a Spanish actress. Signed by an agent at age 15, she made her acting debut at 16 on television and her feature film debut the following year in Jamón, jamón , to critical acclaim...

, Jet Li

Jet Li

The fame gained by his sports winnings led to a career as a martial arts film star, beginning in mainland China and then continuing into Hong Kong. Li acquired his screen name in 1982 in the Philippines when a publicity company thought his real name was too hard to pronounce...

, Bill Murray

Bill Murray

William James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and...

, Joaquin Phoenix

Joaquin Phoenix

Joaquin Rafael Phoenix , formerly credited as Leaf Phoenix, is an American film actor. He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and his family returned to the continental United States four years later...

 and Rene Russo

Rene Russo

- Early life :Russo was born in Burbank, California, the daughter of Shirley , a factory worker and barmaid, and Nino Russo, a sculptor and car mechanic who left the family when Rene was two. Her father and maternal grandfather were of Italian descent. Russo grew up with her sister, Toni, and their...

. Grecco's work has gained attention for its intimate quality and ability to capture the emotion as well as the appearance of his subjects.

In addition to his contributions to three photography collections, including Esquire

Esquire (magazine)

Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...

magazine's book "Brothers" in 1999, he has published three books of his own. Grecco's The Art of Portrait Photography, Creative Lighting Techniques and Strategies (2000) and Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait, the Art of Celebrity and Editorial Photography (2006) are devoted to educating others in his field.

Naked Ambition: An R Rated Look at an X Rated Industry

Naked Ambition: An R Rated Look at an X Rated Industry

Naked Ambition: An R Rated Look at an X Rated Industry isthe third portrait photography book by American photographer Michael Grecco. It is published by Rock Out Books . The book contains over 200 photographs of actors, filmmakers and personalities in the world of adult entertainment...

, is Grecco's most liberated work to date. The hardcover coffee table book

Coffee table book

A coffee table book is a hardcover book that is intended to sit on a coffee table or similar surface in an area where guests sit and are entertained, thus inspiring conversation or alleviating boredom. They tend to be oversized and of heavy construction, since there is no pressing need for...

, aimed to appeal to the art community and adult-entertainment

Sex industry

The sex industry consists of businesses which either directly or indirectly provide sex-related products and services or adult entertainment...

 fans in equal measure, features forewords by rock musician Dave Navarro

Dave Navarro

David Michael "Dave" Navarro is an American guitarist who plays in the alternative rock band Jane's Addiction and cover band Camp Freddy. He has also played with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Panic Channel, and many others.- Early life :...

 and controversial magazine publisher Larry Flynt

Larry Flynt

Larry Claxton Flynt, Jr. is an American publisher and the president of Larry Flynt Publications . In 2003, Arena magazine listed him as the number one on the "50 Powerful People in Porn" list....

. The work was edited by former Hustler

Hustler

Hustler is a monthly pornographic magazine aimed at men and published in the United States. It was first published in 1974 by Larry Flynt. It was a step forward from the Hustler Newsletter which was cheap advertising for his strip club businesses at the time. The magazine grew from a shaky start to...

 and RIP magazine editor Lonn Friend

Lonn Friend

Lonn Friend is an American journalist and author. Friend is best known for his work in the late 1980s and '90s as editor of RIP Magazine, which covered the debaucherous world of heavy metal music and the rock stars who led the movement...

 and former FHM

FHM

FHM, originally published as For Him Magazine, is an international monthly men's lifestyle magazine.- History :The magazine began publication in 1985 in the United Kingdom under the name For Him and changed its title to FHM in 1994 when Emap Consumer Media bought the magazine, although the full For...

 editor Rob Hill. The book contains colorful, revealing and often light-hearted portraits of such adult-entertainment stars as Jenna Jameson

Jenna Jameson

Jenna Jameson is an American entrepreneur and former pornographic actress, who has been called the world's most famous adult-entertainment performer and "The Queen of Porn."...

, Ron Jeremy

Ron Jeremy

Ronald Jeremy Hyatt , usually called Ron Jeremy, is an American pornographic actor. Nicknamed "The Hedgehog", he was ranked by AVN at number one in their "The 50 Top Porn Stars of All Time" list...

, Larry Flynt

Larry Flynt

Larry Claxton Flynt, Jr. is an American publisher and the president of Larry Flynt Publications . In 2003, Arena magazine listed him as the number one on the "50 Powerful People in Porn" list....

, Tera Patrick

Tera Patrick

Linda Ann Hopkins, better known as Tera Patrick is a former American pornographic actress.-Early life:Tera Patrick was born Linda Ann Hopkins in Great Falls, Montana. While at Boise State, Patrick earned an AAS degree in nursing and a BS in Biology.-Career:Patrick moved to New York City and her...

 and husband Evan Seinfeld

Evan Seinfeld

Evan Seinfeld is an American musician and actor, as well as a director, photographer, and writer. He has also appeared in several pornographic films under the pseudonym "Spyder Jonez". He is best known for playing bass guitar and serving as vocalist for the heavy metal band Biohazard, and as the...

, John Stagliano

John Stagliano

John Allen Stagliano , also known as Buttman, is an American entrepreneur, pornographic actor, producer and director, who founded and owns the Evil Angel pornographic film studio.-Early life and career:...

 (aka Buttman), Alexandra Silk

Alexandra Silk

Alexandra Silk is an American pornographic actress, pornographic director and adult model.- Biography :A graduate of the State University of New York, Silk began her adult career as a stripper in Las Vegas. During this time she met porn star Jenna Jameson, who advised her on how to enter the...

, Katsuni

Katsuni

Katsuni is a French pornographic actress.-Biography:Katsuni is of French/Vietnamese heritage. Her father is Vietnamese and her mother's family is French...

, Kurt Lockwood

Kurt Lockwood

Kurt Lockwood is an American pornographic actor, model, and musician.-Biography:Lockwood graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1992 with a B.A. in Theatre. There, he was a member of the improvisational theatre group Erasable Inc.. He relocated to San Francisco from Baltimore...

, and Sunny Lane

Sunny Lane

Not to be confused with fellow pornographic actress Sunny LeoneSunny Lane is an American pornographic actress and nude model.-Biography:Her parents are Shelby and Mike, who worked in air-freight...

.

Grecco has frequently been involved in litigation including litigation with Dow Jones 1, Hythiam 2, Gawker 3, and others.

External links

• Time Multimedia Video - Photoshoot with Penelope Cruz and Pedro Almodovar
• Rangefinder interview
• Double Exposure feature
• Michael Grecco website
• Naked Ambition website
• Michael Grecco's social networking site on 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....
  
  
• Michael Grecco - Naked Ambition Preview