Andrew Zuckerman

Andrew Zuckerman (born 1977) is an American filmmaker and photographer working in still life and portrait photography. His subjects included politicians, humanitarians, artists, birds, and endangered species of animals. Using solid white backgrounds and short shutter speeds, he captures images with extreme sharpness and high level of detail.

Zuckerman received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 1999. He began his career as a commercial still life photographer, before releasing the book, Creature, a portrait series of animals, in 2007. He has since published four additional volumes: Wisdom (2008), Bird (2009), Music (2010), and Flower (2012). Wisdom and Music were also realized as feature length, interview-format documentary films. In 2006, Zuckerman co-founded a company Late Night and Weekends, through which he released the acclaimed documentary, Still Bill, about the life of Blues musician, Bill Withers, and created campaigns for brands including Puma and Gap.

He produced and directed his first short narrative film, High Falls, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, in 2007. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and received the award for best short narrative at the Woodstock Film Festival the same year. Writing for The New York Times, David Carr called the project "a pretty film, and a pretty smart film."

His photographic and film work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions internationally.

Zuckerman's brand work for Apple, Inc. has spanned commercials, launch videos, and special projects, including the book, Designed by Apple in California.

Works, technique and exhibitions Zuckerman has spoken extensively about his interest in systematically collecting and organizing data to create multiple entry points into work that is conceptual in nature. One such system is a comprehensive mobile studio, consisting of fourteen cases of equipment, with which Zuckerman has traveled the world in order to situate all of his subjects in the same space. and has said that his minimalist style is "a function of what I was after conceptually with the work I was creating [and] a solution to a series of desires I have for what I want my work to communicate" rather than an aesthetic choice. He has discussed his use of white as a transportational device that allows him to draw out the essential nature of his subjects. Zuckerman has said that he drew inspiration from the dioramas at the Museum of Natural History and was interested in creating a kind of two-dimensional taxidermy. The book includes a taxonomical index for each of the species photographed. In 2014, works from the Creature series were displayed as a part of the Nevada Museum of Art's Late Harvest exhibit and two were retained for the museum's permanent collection. Private collectors of Zuckerman's work from the series include the architect Bjarke Ingels, Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo.

Wisdom (2008) Zuckerman applied the same visual language – intimate, close-up portraits against a bright white background – to the Wisdom project, for which he filmed, photographed, and interviewed 60 politicians, artists, entertainers, designers and religious and business leaders over the age of 65, including Chuck Close, Frank Gehry, Judi Dench, Clint Eastwood, Jane Goodall, Desmond Tutu, and Ted Kennedy.

During the making of Wisdom, Zuckerman became interested in the idea of the dynamic portrait, one that incorporates voice, physical presence, and written word. Interviewing subjects around the common themes of love, work, conflict resolution, and the environment, and utilizing a mobile studio, Zuckerman aimed to place his contributors in the same virtual space and conversation, creating what he refers to as a "group of global elders to speak to our global village". The Wisdom traveling exhibit, which premiered at The Library of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, incorporates text, video, and images from the project, and continues to tour internationally today.

Bird (2009) Following the release of Wisdom, Zuckerman began work on Bird. His hyper-detailed photographs of over seventy species nod at John James Audubon's ornithological drawings. The Bird website features a short accompanying film, and incorporates additional data such as wingspan and audio files of each species' call. Both Creature and Bird are informed by a conservationist element, and include portraits of many rare or endangered animals.

Flower (2012) Returning to his visual survey of the natural world with his 2012 project, Flower, Zuckerman photographed over 230 varieties of flora, drawing inspiration from 19th century botanical drawings. He has expressed his desire to create, with the use of modern technology, "the best possible two-dimensional representation of three-dimensional living things", and to separate his subject from its metaphorical associations in art. Like Creature and Bird, Flower includes a taxonomical index. The project, which filmmaker David Lynch has called "a grand celebration of mother nature's artistry", also incorporates time lapse films of the life cycles of seven different species. The films were created from high definition stills, as opposed to video footage. Zuckerman's flowers were also exhibited at the Museum Schloss Moyland.

Zuckerman has expressed his interest in exploring singular subjects from a multitude of perspectives and engaging his audience across a variety of platforms.

In 2022, Zuckerman won a Clio award for his photographic collaboration with UNDP and the Lions Share Fund for the Eye to Eye campaign, aimed at catalyzing a movement to preserve global biodiversity.

Commercial work Zuckerman's brand work has included projects for Puma, BMW, Gap, Gucci, and Tiffany & Co. He collaborated with Apple on product launches and other media, including the book Designed by Apple in California, which collected over 200 of Zuckerman's images of Apple products, from the first iMac through the Apple Watch. The Slowdown produces the podcasts Time Sensitive and At a Distance. Interviews from the latter have been collected and condensed in book form.

Books Creature (2007) Wisdom (2008) Bird (2009) Music (2010) "Flower" (2012) Designed by Apple in California (2016) Films High Falls (2007), Director, Producer Wisdom (2008), Director, Producer, Executive Producer "Bird" (2009), Director, Producer Still BIll (2009), Executive Producer Music (2010), Director, Producer, Executive Producer "Flower" (2012), Director, Producer

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

2007 Creature, Forma International Center of Photography, Milan, Italy 2008 Wisdom, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia 2009 Bird Film, High Line, New York City, NY Bird, Colette, Paris, France 2010 Bird Film, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA Bird Film, International Film Festival Breda, Breda, The Netherlands Wisdom Exhibit, World Financial Center, Winter Garden, New York City, NY Wisdom Exhibit, Siamsa Tire Gallery, Dingle, Ireland 2011 Wisdom, Bank of America Plaza, Los Angeles, CA Wisdom, Brookfield Place Adam Lambert Galleria, Toronto, CA Wisdom, Bay Adelaide Center, Toronto, CA

Group exhibitions

1999 SVA mentor show 2003 Young Guns Show 2007 SUNY ULSTER, Muroff Kotler Gallery, Stone Ridge New York, USA 2008 Paris Photo, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, France 2011 Obstacle, Invisible Dog Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, USA, Getxphoto Festival, Bilbao, Spain 2013 Flowers and Mushrooms, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria 2014 Late Harvest, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV, USA 2016 Say It with Flowers, Museum Schloss Moyland, Bedburg-Hau, Germany

Honors and awards

2003 Art Directors Club, Young Guns 2005 Broadcast Design Award 2006 D&AD Yellow Pencil For Photography 2007 High Falls, Woodstock Film Festival, Best Short Film 2007 High Falls, Sundance Film Festival, Official Selection

Annuals

2003 American Photography Annual, Communication Arts Annual 2005 Communication Arts Photography Annual, PDN Photography Annual, PDN 30 2006 Communication Arts Annual, PDN Photography Annual 2007 PDN Digital_Personal, PDN Digital_Music, Graphis Advertising Annual, Graphis Photography Annual, PDN Photography Annual 2008 Communication Arts Annual, PDN Photo Annual, Graphis Photography Annual 2009 American Photography 25, Communication Arts Annual 2010 Graphis Photography Annual, American Photography 26, PDN Photo Annual, Communication Arts, D&AD Annual 2011 Graphis Photography Annual, 100 Best in Photography

External references