Bio for photographer Jeff Lipsky, commissioned by Stockland Martel, 2009
Jeff Lipsky. Photograph by Chris McPherson.
Before he moved to Southern California in 1998 to pursue photography, Jeff Lipsky spent a decade in the mountains of Telluride, Colorado, snowboarding in the winter and working as a fly-fishing guide in the summer. It was his version of an alternative lifestyle, and he loved it. His life now couldn’t be more different: He lives in Venice Beach with his wife and son, and he’s a successful celebrity portrait photographer. But he’s still the same easygoing guy who likes for things to feel unaffected and unforced, and it shows in his work.
Lipsky has photographed celebrities of every stripe for a wide variety of clients—from Vogue to Entertainment Weekly to Outside magazine—yet his images are consistently warm and inviting, aspirational but real. “I like my portraits to have a healthy, warm energy,” explains Lipsky.
Though his Colorado days are behind him, Lipsky does get to revisit his sporty past. He’s taken actors fly-fishing, and—in what remains his favorite assignment so far—he once went heli-snowboarding for a week in Alaska with skateboard legend Tony Hawk for Men’s Health. “I spent seven days with Tony in bottomless powder in Alaska and took a beautiful portrait of him. I was with one of my favorite people I could possibly wish to be with because he was my hero as a kid,” says Lipsky. “It was everything I loved all wrapped up in one.”