Celebrity Portraits by Richard Phibbs

Richard Phibbs brings an artist’s eye to every photo he takes -- in advertising and magazines, fine art and his personal work.



He has shot advertising campaigns for Giorgio Armani, as well as iconic American brands such as Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. His editorial work has appeared in Italian Vanity Fair, Vogue Hommes, The New York Times Magazine and others.

Phibbs’s portraits give a revealing “take” on subjects as varied as Hillary Clinton and Bernard Henri Levy, Beyonce and Pedro Almodovar, Meryl Streep and Jay Z.

Phibbs has just compiled more than a decade’s worth of work into a provocative new book, “Richard Phibbs | Chasing Beauty,” which debuts in Fall 2010.

Another facet of Phibbs’s work is revealed in Richard Phibbs Fine Art, limited-edition prints - conceived for interior designers, architects and private collectors including Anderson Cooper, Francis Ford Coppola and President Bill Clinton.

Photography is Phibbs’s passion. He believes photographs can change, inspire and motivate us. His signature causes -- children with AIDS and animals -- are his inspiration. His emotional connection to his work is perhaps best revealed in his photos of the forgotten children of Romania’s AIDS epidemic -- some stark, some heartbreaking, all life-affirming. Traveling four times to Bucharest, he has taken more than 200 portraits of children with HIV, many of them orphans. Phibbs’s work, including
portraits of the children, is the basis for the non-profit Children of Nowhere, co-founded by Phibbs, which funds vital medications and supplies for Romanian children with HIV/AIDS. Contact: childrenofnowhere.com

Whoever his subject, Phibbs looks for a personal connection, then brings that connection to the viewer of his finished photos. “Something touches me, something in my heart says now!” he says. “There’s a shift in the subject, one way or the other, and I see who that person really is. When I lose a bit of my breath I know: That’s the picture.”

Born and raised in the Canadian West, Phibbs has received degrees from the University of Toronto and Parsons School of Design. Richard lives in New York City. To view Phibbs’s work, contact : richardphibbs.com and richardphibbsfineart.com.