The Creative Vision of the Tenacious Jeff Lipsky

How a Celebrity Photographer Brings the Cool, Captures Real Moments and Raises Three Kids in the Palisades

His images of Chris Pratt fill the pages of People magazine’s Sexiest Men Alive issue this month and his shots of Damien Chazelle, director of Whiplash, grace the October issue of Vogue. He shot Jason Statham for the cover of French GQ and Brittany Spears took to Instagram to sing his praises after a recent shoot for her Vegas show. He traveled to Belfast to shoot Game of Thrones star Kit Harington and got Zac Efron, Michael B. Jordan and Miles Teller to go swimming in suits and ties for a Glamour magazine shoot – and that is just a sampling from the past year.

By all accounts, Palisadian photographer Jeff Lipsky has made it as one of the top celebrity and advertising photographers. And he attributes it all to three things: timing, tenacity and talent – in that order.

“You have to put yourself in the right place at the right time and you have to be persistent. I was constantly shooting – it’s everything when you’re starting out,” he told the Post during an interview in his Santa Monica office. “And talent comes from practice. That’s what makes you more comfortable and allows you to be creative.”

Learning how to handle a camera was the easy part. Though he only took one photography class while studying advertising at Boston University, Lipsky has always had a love for the art.

But landing the cover shots of popular magazines and booking national advertising campaigns has been a journey – one that included a stop in Colorado along the way.

Go West, Young Man

After graduating from college, Lipsky loaded the car and headed west for Telluride, Colorado. Snowboarding had just become legal at the resort and Lipsky planned to spend a season leaving fresh tracks on unridden snow. That first ski season came and went and one winter turned into two, then three. Ultimately, Lipsky would spend the next 10 years in Colorado.

“I was snowboarding at least 200 days a year. It was incredible. It was more normal for me to sit on a chairlift than to sit on a chair,” he said.

When he wasn’t on the mountain, Lipsky was working as a fly-fishing guide. Inspired by the natural beauty of his surroundings, his interest in photography peaked. He spent a year shooting for a local newspaper before he made the decision to continue on his decade-delayed road trip west to California.

“I moved to Los Angeles with the sole intention of learning to take photos. That’s what I wanted to do and I came here to do it,” he said.

Lipsky spent eight months working for free in the grip room at Smash Box studios, all the while shooting his own images at rapid fire.

“That’s how I learned the ropes,” he said. “I’d ask for the leftover film after a shoot and then ask the assistant stylist and assistant makeup artist if they would help out. I photographed everyone I knew.”

Lipsky was in the right place at the right time. Through his connection with the studio, he began assisting some of the top photographers in LA.

While assisting on a shoot, he caught the attention of a magazine editor based in New York City who invited him to drop by if he was ever in town. Lipsky made sure he was. One connection led to another and the LA-based new kid on the block was booking jobs in the Big Apple.

“There was a time when everyone thought you had to be in New York to be shooting. But I made a definite choice to be in L.A. and I’m glad I did,” he said. “The most flattering thing is having a New York magazine fly in an LA photographer. That’s big.”

When Premiere magazine hired Lipsky to shoot their Sundance portfolio, he knew he was with the in crowd. It was the job that propelled him into working for big-name commercial clients like Eddie Bauer, Showtime and 20th Century Fox and his images were starting to land in magazines like Men’s Journal, Outside, Esquire, Glamour, Woman’s Health and Vogue.

Setting the Scene

Lipsky was finding his vision and his artistic process along the way. Being under pressure to capture not only a great image – but the perfect image – under the time and space constraints of the client, requires weeks of planning for one half-hour shoot, he explained. Taking the actual photo accounts for 10 percent or less of the time, he added.

Once on set, Lipsky will often spend as much time talking with the subject as he spends shooting. A lot goes into making his client comfortable in hopes of creating – and capturing – a real moment in time, he said.

“I remember shooting Philip Seymour Hoffman and he had this incredibly spontaneous moment where he picked up a can of blue paint that was nearby and just started painting his face,” Lipsky remembers. “We didn’t plan for that, but we went with it and that shot was the first moment that I thought I had really done something.”

Sometimes Lipsky will shoot at a beach house, even though he isn’t shooting the beach. Or he’ll set his subject to look out at the sunset, even though he is shooting in the opposite direction.

“It’s the setting that helps create an organic, natural environment,” he said. “When people feel comfortable with themselves, you can see it in the viewfinder. I want them to enjoy the experience and at the end of the day, the thing I want to hear is, ‘That was fun.’”

Looking through Lipsky’s portfolio of upbeat images, it does look fun, and it is clear his aptitude for capturing images that are authentic and lively is very much connected to the man behind the camera.

Technically, he is fully competent. He knows his equipment, his lighting; that’s a given. But he is also exceptionally charismatic. He’s a people person – and that’s a big part of the job, he said.

Lipsky’s cool mix of charm and relaxed confidence exudes a compelling attractiveness that comes from a sincere appreciation for doing what he truly loves – and that’s a big part of the job as well.

“I’m trying to take the most beautiful photo I can, not just for the client but for myself,” he said. “I like to make women look beautiful and men look cool. I like to portray people in the best way. I like seeing people feel good. That makes me feel good.”

A Balancing Act

Working in an incredibly high-pressure industry does carry its own set of challenges – including a need to be versatile, flexible – and a good traveler. One week he’s shooting album packaging for Keith Urban; the next he’s shooting for Roxy in Hawaii or Jon Hamm for the cover of a magazine.

Lipsky racks up more than 120,000 airline miles every year for the job, often traveling from his home in the Palisades to New York for the day or an overnight stay in London. He spent a week on a job in Alaska heli-skiing with Tony Hawk and once, he flew to the Artic Circle for just four hours.

“It’s the dream job. But sometimes when you’re doing it, you forget it is. The travel is long, the work is not easy and I don’t want to be away from my family,” he said. I’m extremely hands on with my kids and I hate to be away from them.”

When he’s not on the clock, Lipsky is likely walking his six-year-old son to school or wrangling his four-year-old twins with his wife Jill, a lifelong Palisadian. The family made their move from Venice to the Palisades four years ago and he admits – he went kicking and screaming.

“It turned out to be the best decision of my life,” he said. “I’m in love with the Palisades, largely because of the people and the incredible sense of community.”

For Lipsky, maintaining a healthy work/life balance is as much an art as his photography. But for someone who maintains such a demanding schedule, he remains remarkably easygoing. That’s because despite the unending trips to LAX, camera in hand, Lipsky still loves it.

“If you love what you do, you’ll be successful. That’s why I became a photographer – because I loved it,” he said. “I am always happy behind the camera. It’s still a rush. I still get excited.”