{{short description|American photographer, director, and author (born 1958)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2020}} {{Infobox artist | name = Michael Grecco | image = Michael Grecco 2009 (cropped).jpg | image_size = 250px | alt = | caption = Michael Grecco in 2009 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|mf=yes|1958|5|20}} | birth_place = United States | field = Photography | training = Boston University | movement = | works = | website = {{url|grecco.com}} }}
'''Michael Grecco''' (born May 20, 1958) is an American photographer, film director and author.
==Early life and education== Grecco was born in the Bronx and grew up near New York City.<ref name="artcake">{{Cite web |last=Youngman|first=Dale|date=2020-11-10 |title=Artist Profile: Michael Grecco |url=https://artandcakela.com/2020/11/10/artist-profile-michael-grecco/ |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=Art and Cake |language=en-US}}</ref> He received his first camera (a Mamiya/Sekor 35mm single-lens reflex) when he was 12.<ref>Grecco, Michael (January 2007). [http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0701/grecco01.html "Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait"]. ''The Digital Journalist''. Retrieved March 27, 2014.</ref> He attended Boston University, where he studied filmmaking and photojournalism as an undergraduate at BU's School of Communications.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Photographer Michael Grecco (COM'81) Caught 70s Punk and New Wave at Its Crest |url=https://www.bu.edu/articles/2021/photographer-michael-grecco-new-book-70s-punk-and-new-wave/ |access-date=2022-12-28 |website=Boston University |date=April 16, 2021 |language=en}}</ref> During his time at Boston University he also studied with photography historian and photographer Carl Chiarenza.
==Career== While in college, Grecco began working as a freelance photographer for the Associated Press and then later became a staff photographer at ''Boston Herald.'' He also shot the burgeoning new music scene for Boston Rock Magazine and the Boston radio station WBCN, documenting Boston's "pivotal role in launching the punk rock explosion" of the 1970s.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-01-16 |title=Book by ex-Hub photographer offers portrait of Boston's punk heyday |url=https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/01/16/book-by-ex-hub-photographer-offers-portrait-of-bostons-punk-heyday/ |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=Boston Herald |language=en-US}}</ref> During the same time period, he began his career as a magazine photographer working for the Picture Group Agency based in Providence Rhode Island.<ref name = "BG1">Beggy Carol and Shaahan, Mark (December 12, 2006). [https://web.archive.org/web/20140611113040/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-7985593.html "Grecco shooting for the stars"]. ''Boston Globe''.</ref> His early work appeared in magazines including ''Time'',<ref name=Stein>Joel Stein, [http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,596137,00.html "He's With Him"], ''Time'', 2004</ref> ''Newsweek'', ''Esquire'', ''Vanity Fair'', and ''Rolling Stone''.<ref>Photos, [https://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/donna-summer-through-the-years-20120517/boston-0604651 "Donna Summer Through the Years"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924213321/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/donna-summer-through-the-years-20120517/boston-0604651 |date=September 24, 2015 }}, ''Rolling Stone'', 2012</ref>
Grecco moved to Los Angeles in the late 1980s. As a contributor to ''People'',<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brauer |first=Laura |date=2010-04-01 |title=On the Cover: Michael Grecco |url=https://www.rangefinderonline.com/news-features/industry-news/on-the-cover-michael-grecco/ |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=Rangefinder |language=en}}</ref> his coverage of events such as the Golden Globes, the Emmy Awards and the Academy Awards led to his career as a celebrity portrait photographer.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=zaGiQlAb0aMC&pg=PA19 ''American Photo''] (May-June 2007), Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 11 and 19.</ref><ref>Steel, Andy (2009). [https://books.google.com/books?id=a9x2_k-WZWwC&pg=PA103 ''The World's Top Photographer's Workshops: Celebrity & Performance''], pp. 103–108. MBI Publishing. {{ISBN|0760337675}}.</ref> In 1993 he was asked to photograph a special edition of ''Businessweek'' called the "Entrepreneurs That Matter", traveling the world photographing the most important entrepreneurs of the day. That lead to being asked by Fox Broadcasting to shoot a new show, ''The X-Files'', where he helped define the look of the show by "cross processing" color negative film in color slide chemistry and using special camera filters. In 2015 he created the first Cinemagraph to ever be used as a broadcast television spot for Pizza Hut, during the Turner Broadcasting show, ''Billy on the Street.''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Beer |first=Jeff |date=2015-12-22 |title=Cinemagraphs Hit TV With This New Pizza Hut Commercial |url=https://www.fastcompany.com/3054951/cinemagraphs-hit-tv-with-this-new-pizza-hut-commercial |access-date=2023-01-09 |website=FastCompany}}</ref>
His subjects have included Martin Scorsese,<ref>Richard Schickel, [https://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/time100/article/0,28804,1595326_1595332_1616423,00.html "Martin Scorsese"], ''The 2007 Time 100'', 2007</ref> Robert Duvall, Johnny Cash, Will Ferrell, Kanye West,<ref>[http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1599705,00.html "Will Ferrell: Brilliant Idiot"] ''Time'', 2007</ref> Mel Brooks, Ben Stiller,<ref name="Stein" /> Penélope Cruz, Jet Li, Bill Murray, Joaquin Phoenix and Gwen Stefani.<ref name="Guardian">{{Cite web |date=2021-09-05 |title=A lust for life … my years backstage with the giants of punk |url=http://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/sep/05/a-lust-for-life-my-years-backstage-with-the-giants-of-punk |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref> He has shot covers for ''Time'', ''Wired'', ''Entertainment Weekly'', ''ESPN'', and ''People'', among other publications.<ref name="SP">Miller, Alice B. (January 2007), [https://web.archive.org/web/20140611102246/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1259713351.html "Open Book: Like his new best-seller, Michael Grecco is a creative amalgam of the intuitive and the technical."]. ''Studio Photography'', Vol 10, No. 1. 1097-1181.</ref>
Grecco's first two books were on lighting techniques in photographic portraiture.<ref name = "BG1" /><ref name = "SP" /> In 2007, he released ''Naked Ambition: An R Rated Look at an X Rated Industry'', a collection of photographs on the American porn industry and its stars taken at the AVN Awards and Convention in Las Vegas.<ref>Blue, Violet (November 15, 2007). [http://www.sfgate.com/living/article/One-photographer-s-Naked-Ambition-Violet-Blue-2491560.php "One photographer's 'Naked Ambition'"]. ''San Francisco Chronicle''. Retrieved March 28, 2014.</ref> He also directed a documentary of the same name that premiered in April 2009.<ref>Barker, Andrew (May 1, 2009 ). [https://web.archive.org/web/20160222182847/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-200843845.html "Review: ''Naked Ambition: An R Rated Look at an X Rated Industry''"]. ''Variety''.</ref> In 2020, a collection of Grecco's photos, ''Punk, Post Punk, New Wave: Onstage, Backstage, In Your Face, 1978-1991'', was published by Abrams Books. A "photographic document of a critical pocket of the American punk scene in all its brash and seedy glory," <ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/michael-grecco/punk-post-punk-new-wave/ |title=PUNK, POST PUNK, NEW WAVE |work=Kirkus Reviews |language=en}}</ref> the photos from the book were first exhibited at Photo London in 2021.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Days of Punk : Exhibition of Photography by Michael Grecco : Gallery PHOTIQ |url=https://www.photiq.uk/photography-exhibitions-leamington-spa/michael-grecco-days-of-punk/ |access-date=2022-12-30 |website=Photiq |language=en-US}}</ref> In early 2022, a touring exhibit of the photos, ''Days of Punk'', premiered at La Termica Museum in Malaga, Spain. ''Days of Punk'' was subsequently exhibited in England and at the Southeast Museum of Photography.<ref name="Guardian" />
==Awards and recognition== In 1995 Photo District News named Grecco in their “Lighting Master” series. Grecco has received 5 Awards of Excellence from Communication Arts Magazine and in June 2001 was named a Hasselblad Master.<ref>Fiedler, Kerstin (June 2001). [http://www.hasselblad.com/masters-2001/june---michael-grecco.aspx Hasselblad Masters: Michael Grecco] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140328171008/http://www.hasselblad.com/masters-2001/june---michael-grecco.aspx |date=March 28, 2014 }}. Hasselblad.com. Retrieved March 27, 2014.</ref> He also received several awards in the 2011 Prix de la Photographie Paris competition including ones for his portraits of Steve Martin and Martin Scorsese and in 2012 was one of the eight recipients of the Professional Photographer Leadership Award from the United Nations International Photographic Council.<ref>Prix de la Photographie Paris (2011) [http://px3.fr/winners/hc/ExhbitionPX3.php Exhibition Winners] and [http://px3.fr/winners/2011/HonorableMentions.php Honorable Mentions]. Retrieved March 27, 2014.</ref><ref>International Photographic Council (March 28, 2012). [http://ipc-un-ngo.org/press-releases/2012-2/ipc-announces-leadership-awards/ "IPC Announces Leadership Awards"]. Retrieved March 27, 2014.</ref> As a staff photographer for the ''Boston Herald'', he won several Boston Press Photographers awards.<ref>Santoro, Henry (May 18, 2010), [http://thephoenix.com/boston/movies/102258-peep-show/ "Peep show: Michael Grecco's Naked Ambition"]. ''The Boston Phoenix''. Retrieved March 27, 2014.</ref>
==Copyright troll==
Grecco has been accused of being a copyright troll.<ref name="TheWrap"></ref><ref name="Coburn"></ref><ref name="Supra">{{cite web |title=A Common Dilemma: Responding to Copyright Trolls |url=https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/a-common-dilemma-responding-to-2148332/ |website=JD Supra |access-date=11 April 2026 |language=en}}</ref> Between 2002 and 2025, Grecco has filed 220 copyright lawsuits against individuals, small blogs, and media giants.<ref name="TheWrap">{{cite web |last1=Waxman |first1=Sharon |title=Copyright Troll Michael Grecco to Media: Pay Up or Drop Dead |url=https://www.thewrap.com/michael-grecco-copyright-troll/ |website=The Wrap |access-date=11 April 2026 |ref="TheWrap"}}</ref> In 2019, Fox Corporation learned that Grecco was threatening copyright infringement suits against individuals for their use of publicity photos shot by Grecco for Fox shows and sent him a cease and desist letter in response.<ref name="TheWrap"></ref> Grecco settled with Fox, "agree[ing] and acknowledg[ing] that the scope of Grecco’s license to Fox in the remaining Gallery photographs is limited to the Permitted non-exclusive uses, which, for the avoidance of all doubt, permits all advertising and publicity uses, including but not limited to retrospective advertising and publicity uses and archival advertising and publicity uses.”<ref name="TheWrap"></ref>
While Grecco has threatened to seek statutory damages of $150,000 per violation, and offered settlements in the tens of thousands of dollars, Grecco has been awarded damages of less than $1000 when forced to trial.<ref name="Coburn">{{cite web |title=Hard-fought copyright case produces just $750 award |url=https://www.thompsoncoburn.com/insights/hard-fought-copyright-case-produces-just-750-award-102jb14/ |publisher=Thompson Coburn LLP |access-date=11 April 2026}}</ref>
==Bibliography== * ''The Art of Portrait Photography, Creative Lighting Techniques and Strategies'', 126 pages. Amherst Media (2000). {{ISBN|0936262850}} * ''Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait, the Art of Celebrity and Editorial Photography'', 192 pages. Amphoto (2006). {{ISBN|0817442278}} * ''Naked Ambition: An R Rated Look at an X Rated Industry'', 224 pages. Rock Out Books (2007). {{ISBN|0979331404}} * ''Punk, Post Punk, New Wave: Onstage, Backstage, In Your Face, 1978–1991'', 240 pages, Abrams Books (2020), {{ISBN|1419748548}}
==Personal life== Grecco is based in Los Angeles. He has three children. He and his wife, Elizabeth Waterman, a photographer <ref>{{Cite web |last=Dambrot |first=Shana Nys |date=2021-07-19 |title=Meet Photographer Elizabeth Waterman |url=https://www.laweekly.com/meet-photographer-elizabeth-waterman/ |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=LA Weekly |language=en-US}}</ref> and the CEO of Black + Gold, a marketing agency, were married in 2018.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Meet Michael Grecco: Photographer, director, producer, and entrepreneur » Days of Punk |url=https://daysofpunk.com/book-gallery/punk-rock-press/meet-michael-grecco-photographer-director-producer-and-entrepreneur |access-date=2021-04-25 |website=Days of Punk |language=en-US}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist|2}}
== External links == * {{official website|http://www.grecco.com}} * [https://daysofpunk.com/ ''Days of Punk'']
* {{Commons category-inline|Michael Grecco}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grecco, Michael}} Category:American portrait photographers Category:Boston University College of Communication alumni Category:1958 births Category:Living people