Quick Facts
Biography
Michael Muller (born 1970) is an American photographer known for his celebrity and advertising photos. He has photographed portraits of a wide range of actors, musicians, and artists, including Joaquin Phoenix, Robert Downey Jr., Shepard Fairey, Hugh Jackman, and Alec Baldwin. And he has shot movie posters and promotional photos for many Hollywood movies, such as Iron Man and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Muller is also known for his up-close underwater shark photography, which has been featured on the Travel Channel and the NBC talk show Last Call With Carson Daly, as well as in magazines such as Entertainment Weekly. In 2016, Taschen published a monograph of his shark photography titled Sharks.
Born in California, Muller spent part of his childhood in Saudi Arabia, where his father was based for work. His family traveled to many countries while there, and the more Muller saw, the more he found himself drawn to photography, which was a passion of his father's.
Michael spent his teen years in Northern California, where he became involved in the snowboarding scene. His first published photos were of snowboarding, and he went on to spend five years traveling the world and photographing competitive snowboarders.
Eventually, Michael made his way back to Los Angeles, where he experimented with portraiture. In the years since, his photographs have appeared in magazine, on album covers such as Rihanna's Unapologetic, and in ad campaigns, fashion editorials, and gallery exhibitions.
"I treat everybody with the same respect," Michael has said of his subjects. "I don’t change my attitude just because someone is famous. I respect their talent, but I treat them as a real person. We all breathe the same air and we all have the same sun, so let’s work together and make a great iconic picture together!"
He is also the cofounder, with Jennifer Howell, of Kids Clicking Kids, a program that is administered through Art of Elysium, which teaches photography to children who are suffering from serious illness. And he works with the United Nations and the Nothing but Nets Campaign to raise awareness and fund the fight against malaria in Africa.
Michael, who is a cofounder of Photo School, is based in Los Angeles. He is represented by Stockland Martel.