Celebrity Photographer Jeff Katz '82

_{all photos copyright Jeff Katz Photography}

Portraits by Jeff Katz, from top:  self, Heath Ledger, Pamela Anderson, Denzel Washington, Prince

Jeff Katz ’82 has been shooting sports, music, and Hollywood stars for two decades.  by Greg Ryan '08 with Maura Stephens

“Every penny I’ve ever made has been through photography,” says Jeff Katz ’82, who’s been shooting Hollywood stars for more than 20 years. "I'm incredibly grateful for that." The  Park School grad has shot images of some of the top actors, musicians, and athletes of our times for magazines, album covers, and publicity materials .

Jeff, who lives in Malibu, California, admits he has come close to burning out a few times, yet he has made a career of evolving to meet the industry’s ever-changing demands. At IC he specialized in art photography with an often disturbing twist — one controversial shot featured a snowman decapitating a snowwoman with an ax.

“My work,” Jeff says now, “was 100 percent equally offensive to man, woman, child — everybody.” Even so, he says, "My years at Ithaca College were the best years of my life. I tell this to parents and their college-bound children quite frequently." 

Upon graduating, realizing a living wouldn't be made in art photography, he ditched shock art for the concert beat. He got his first big break in the mid-1980s shooting a Prince album cover. "I was given a wonderful opportunity at that time, as a young kid, photographing this brilliant musician at the top of his career," says Jeff. "It was exciting."

Jeff's career as a music photographer took off from there, with Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and Eurythmics among the acts he photographed. The early-’90s emergence of grunge and “gangsta” rap and the demise of the photo-driven record album led Jeff to segue into photography for film, television, and celebrity merchandising, areas in which he still works.

Perhaps the greatest challenge to Jeff’s livelihood has been the industry-wide conversion to digital photography. “Digital photography,” he says, “is killing photography.” Jeff says the form requires less skill — mistakes made during shooting can usually be corrected on a computer in production — and deeper pockets. “It’s like the difference between a vinyl album and a CD,” he says of the digital/film divide. He has adapted, though, and works hard to keep his reputation as a hardworking veteran who shoots digital prints that look like traditional film photography. "Everything I've accomplished," says Jeff, "has been through resilience, diplomacy, hard work, and a love of my art form."