Martin Schoeller

2025 Honoree / Achievement in Portraiture

Martin Schoeller (b. 1968, Germany) is one of the world’s preeminent contemporary portrait photographers. He is most known for his close-up portraits, a series in which familiar faces are treated with the same scrutiny as the un-famous, world leaders and indigenous groups, movie stars and the homeless, athletes and artists — leveling them in an inherently democratic fashion. The stylistic consistency of this work invites comparison between his subjects, while challenging a viewer’s existing notions of celebrity, value and honesty.

Growing up in Germany, Schoeller was deeply influenced by August Sander’s countless portraits of the poor, the working class and the bourgeoisie, as well as Bernd and Hilla Becher, who spawned a school of photographic typology known as the Becher-Schüler. Where the Bechers systematically and legendarily captured industrial structures, Schoeller was moved to adapt the approach to photograph human faces. The pictures in his Close Up series have all been taken from similar angles with the same equipment aiming for an anthropological study of faces of our time. His photographs are tight and personal, creating a confrontation between the viewer and the subject that daily interaction makes impossible, or at least impolite.

Schoeller studied photography at the Lette Verein in Berlin and moved to New York in 1992 to work with Annie Leibovitz. He started his career by producing portraits of people he met on the street, his work soon gained recognition for its strong visual impact and since 1998 he has contributed to publications such as National Geographic, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, TIME, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone and GQ, among others.

Martin’s print and motion work has appeared in many major advertising campaigns. His work has won multiple awards, notably receiving praise for his Colin Kaepernick image in Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign. This image went along to win the prestigious D&AD Black Pencil and the Outdoor Grand Prix at Cannes. Other advertising clients include: Volvo, Chevron, Allstate, HBO, Coca-Cola, AT&T , Mercedes, DreamWorks, Southwest Airlines, GE and Johnnie Walker.

Schoeller’s portraits are exhibited and collected internationally, as well as part of the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Martin lives and works in New York City.

Website: martinschoeller.com

Photo: Self Portrait