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THE PHOTOGRAPHER WHO took the extremely close-up pictures of the Trump administration for Vanity Fair’s controversial interview with Susie Wiles has said he’s shocked by the online reaction.
Christopher Anderson said “the internet seems shocked” by the fact his photos reveal blemishes and wrinkles, but he believes it is a realistic portrayal.
The unedited portraits of Wiles, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and press secretary Karoline Leavitt have been causing quite a stir online – as has the article they featured in.
The two-part article series included over a dozen interviews with Wiles, the White House Chief of Staff, in which she described US President Donald Trump as having an “alcoholic’s personality” and called Space X boss Elon Musk an “avowed” ketamine user.
Critics have complained Anderson’s close-up pictures were deliberately unflattering, but Anderson said that was not his intention.
In an Instagram post today, the photographer said: “The internet seems shocked by the choice to not retouch any blemishes or wrinkles. It’s shocking to me that the world expects reality to be removed from a picture.”
“My intention is not mockery or cheap shots. I’d like to think I’m a stone-faced but critical observer”.
Anderson said he was hesitant to accept the assignment from Vanity Fair as he did not want to treat politicians as celebrities, but he agreed to do it when he realised this wasn’t the case.
“The job was to bring my sensibility as a journalist and see the subject with a clear eye rather than that of a “celebrity” photographer. The job was not to make anyone look good or bad,” he said.
“Celebrity photos are celebrity photos. Politicians are not celebrities. Let’s not mix things up.”
Speaking to The Washington Post, the photographer said that at one point during the job, he was so close to Wiles that she said “You’re too close”.
He was asked about criticism that his photograph of Katherine Leavitt in particular was unfair as it showed what appeared to be injection sites for filler.
He said: “I didn’t put the injection sites on her. People seem to be shocked that I didn’t use Photoshop to retouch out blemishes and her injection marks. I find it shocking that someone would expect me to retouch out those things.”
“That’s the makeup that she puts on, those are the injections she gave herself. If they show up in a photo, what do you want me to say?
“I don’t know if it says something about the world we live in, the age of Photoshop, the age of AI filters on your Instagram, but the fact that the internet is freaking out because they’re seeing real photos and not retouched ones says something to me.”
He said that he believes retouching the photographs would be a lie and would hide the truth of what he saw.
He said this style of photography has been a fixture of his work for many years, and he has photographed people across the political spectrum in this way.
Anderson said Security Advisor Stephen Miller was the “most concerned” about the session.
“He says to me, “You know, you have a lot of power in the discretion you use to be kind to people.” And I looked at him and I said, “You know, you do, too”.”
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