Stories from Beyond the Lens: Michael Childers Photographs

Opens November 26, 2026 

Stories from Beyond the Lens highlights some of the best examples of legendary fine art photographer Michael Childers’ work.  A master of portraiture, with deep ties to celebrity culture, Hollywood, and the creative scenes of Southern California and beyond, Childers captures glamour, intimacy, and sensuality through his lens. 

Though a portrait, at its core, is simply a face or an expression, Childers’ photographs tell a story through his unique ability to fuse celebrity glamour with personal vulnerability and artistic seduction. 

With a career spanning over six decades, he established his academic roots at the UCLA Film School, directing films and studying photography with renowned photographers Robert Heinecken and Edmund Teske. 

Childers became a founding photographer for Andy Warhol’s iconic Interview magazine and After Dark magazine, and he produced numerous covers for Dance magazine and more than 200 other magazine covers.  With his close relationship to the film and music industries, Childers created over 150 album covers and film posters for major studios, and became the special photographer on dozens of films. 

 His long-standing associations and friendships with artists, writers, musicians, and architects created deeply personal photographs of his subjects and enabled Childers to capture not just their image but their essence.  His portraits of long-time friend, artist David Hockney, have added to Hockney’s lore and are part of the permanent collections at Yale University and the Palm Springs Art Museum. 

Childers’ photographs are included in the collections of the British National Portrait Gallery, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center and the Academy Library of Los Angeles.  He remains the only American photographer invited to document productions at Sir Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre in London.