Solebury School Alumnus Jeff  Vespa’s first break as one of the Hollywood’s best known red carpet photographers happened quite by accident – or maybe it was fate. In May 1998, Jeff was working at a job he didn’t like much, when he found an internet job listing that read, “Wanted:  Photographer for Red Carpet premieres in Los Angeles.” At first, Jeff thought it a joke, but printed out the ad and kept it on his desk.

After a few days, he decided to call. What could he lose? On the phone, the voice at the other end asked him, “Are you available tonight?”  Jeff said, “Yeah, I’m available.” Their regular photographer had moved and they needed someone to cover the Bulworth premiere with Warren Beatty, he was told. Jeff needed a flash, a battery pack, and a zoom lens, all items he did not own. The one thing he did own was a good Canon camera with a 50 mm lens. He rented the other equipment and had his girlfriend deliver it to him at the premiere. She did, but the lens he was given was for a Nikon, not a Canon. He would have to shoot with the 50 mm lens, which wasn’t optimal because a red carpet photographer needs a wide angle lens to be able to shoot both the full length photos and close up head shots. Jeff shot the premiere anyway, developed the film, took it to the office, and met with the agent he had spoken to on the phone. They looked through the photos together, and the agent liked them. Jeff confessed that he had shot the photos with the 50 mm lens. The response, “You shot this with a 50 – You’re hired!”

At first, Jeff wasn’t making much money, but his celebrity photo archive grew. He and his partner Steve Granitz, one of the most prolific celebrity photographers in the business, decided to start their own photo agency, but this time, do it online.

It was 2000. The internet had started to take off and companies were adding web addresses to commercials. Jeff created a website, and with an archive of about 25,000 celebrity digital images between partners, they continued to sell their images to magazines but now were selling online through their website. In 1998, Jeff made a deal with Yahoo.com and in 2000 with IMDB for photography (both deals are still in place today). The demand for digital images was growing. Jeff and his partner decided they needed a better platform for the website, so they partnered with a company that had the right technology and funding.

“On January 1, 2001 nine partners officially started WireImage. By October 2001, WireImage was the biggest celebrity website in the country, with the largest market share of any U.S. photo agency,” said Jeff. “In 2007, six years after starting the online photo agency from practically nothing, we sold WireImage to Getty Images for $207 million.”

Jeff and Steve still work as photographers for WireImage.

Jeff’s career has taken him down many paths. He is seriously interested in filmmaking, producing and directing. Since 1996, he’s made several movies, including a 10 minute short film Nosebleed, starring David Arquette, that was featured at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 and just this year, another short, Children of the Spider, starring Mena Suvari and Sam Trammel. He is also planning to produce a documentary film called The Story of LIFE for Life Magazine’s 75^th Anniversary, and as of this writing, he and his writing partner Ilene Staple are working on a screenplay for a feature film, which he will produce and direct.

“The thing about photography and art, and the reason why an artist creates is because of the need to express oneself.” said Jeff.  “I’ve found that moviemaking, more than the photography, is that place where I can express myself the most, and to me, Nosebleed is the most perfect piece of art that I have done so far.”

Jeff Vespa

His photo career still thrives. He is the official photographer for the Sundance Film Festival (since 2003) and the Toronto International Film Festival (since 2006). He teamed up with Paris Hilton in 2004 to create the NY Times bestselling book, Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose, which was followed by Your Heiress Diary: Confess it All to Me. He was named Editor-at-Large of Life.com in March 2009. In addition to his photography and film career, he is a part-owner of the art gallery, The Hole in New York City, and he recently opened an Italian restaurant in Los Angeles called Pici, named after the handmade Tuscan pasta that is served there.

Before coming to Solebury in the late 1980s, Jeff knew he wanted to be a photographer. He had come from Baltimore, MD. The summer before he matriculated, he purposefully shot a series of artful photos of all his friends to document their childhood together. He used his mother’s camera, one she had used for a photography class. He had read the manual and helped her learn how to use the camera. That series of photos, he explained, solidified his passion for photography.

Once at Solebury, he honed his photography skills.

“I was an assistant teacher, helping with photography classes and teaching the other students how to develop and print film,” said Jeff. “I was excited to always have a professional darkroom at my disposal. I would stay in there for hours and sneak back to my room late at night. Having that experience before college was huge for me. The level of teaching and the facilities were as good as I could have ever wanted, and I feel like my work was treated very seriously. We critiqued work very seriously. None of it was like high school. I believe we treated it just as importantly back then as anything I do right now. It was a major part of my development. I put together a great portfolio, printed the pictures and cut the mats, which helped me get accepted to the School of Visual Arts in New York. I still have that portfolio.”

A talented, reliable, and personable guy, Jeff is himself, now a celebrity. Jeff has developed relationships with many actors and artists, people just like him. As an artist, he feels lucky to be the one who captures an actor’s rising career or memorable moment in images.

“For example, I knew Adrien Brody before anyone knew who he was. I’ve watched actors like Adrien rise to fame, after knowing them for so many years, and then being able to be a part of that is special for me. The night he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in the film, The Pianist, I was backstage and one of the first to congratulate him that night. Not only was I able to be a part of that moment, but I was able to photograph it, so forever I’m a part of that moment in his life. Being a part of that history, being a part of the entertainment industry, is the thing that I always wanted and now that’s what I do.”

To read more about Jeff, visit his website, www.jeffvespa.com.

This article was first published by Solebury School Magazine, which features stories about the school's talented alumni, curriculum, faculty, students, and campus events.  As seen by the achievements of successful alumni like Jeff Vespa, the Solebury community strongly values intellectual challenge and academic achievement, creative and independent thinking, mutual respect between students and teachers, deep respect for each individual, and diversity.

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