Who is Christopher Anderson? Karoline Leavitt's Vanity Fair photographer speaks out amid close-up controversy

World Press Photo Award-winning photographer Christopher Anderson was the man behind the lens during the Vanity Fair photography session with the leaders and key officials in President Donald Trump's administration on December 16, 2025, as per Newsweek.

During a recent interview with The Independent, as cited by Newsroom, the Canada-based professional photographer, Christopher Anderson, who clicked portraits of some of the crucial White House officials, has defended and spoken out about the controversy related to his style of clicking extreme close-ups. Anderson said:

"Very close-up portraiture has been a fixture in a lot of my work over the years. Particularly, political portraits that I’ve done over the years. I like the idea of penetrating the theater of politics."

According to Newsweek, the White House officials who were a part of the Vanity Fair photography session included Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Vice President JD Vance, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Director of the Presidential Personnel Office Dan Scavino, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, and James Blair, who is the Deputy Chief of Staff for Political, Legislative, and Public Affairs. However, when Newsweek reached out for comments regarding his photography style, Christopher Anderson said:

"Style is for others to judge. My objective, when photographing the political world, is to make photographs that cut through the staged-managed image to reveal something more real and for the images to honestly portray the encounter that I had at that moment. Being very close is part of how I have been doing this for many years now."

While Karoline Leavitt, the White House Press Secretary's portrait on Instagram, received more than 100,000 likes, some of those photographs clicked by Anderson had a significant impact on social media, as they also sparked a prompt and engaging discourse. Acknowledging the response on social media after the Vanity Fair photo shoot, Christopher Anderson informed Newsweek:

"Some on the inernet have expressed shock that I chose not to retouch blemishes, injection marks, wrinkles, ets. From my perspective, it should be shocking if I did indeed retouch these things out."

Let's find out more about Christopher Anderson

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According to Sauvage TV, besides being an award-winning photographer and the recipient of the Robert Capa Gold Medal, Christopher Anderson is also a film director and creative collaborator.

While a member of Magnum Photos, which is a Paris-based international photographic cooperative founded in 1947, Anderson has worked for big brands such as Burberry, Rolex, and Nike. He has also collaborated with prominent media outlets such as Vanity Fair, Esquire, National Geographic, Vogue, and The New Yorker.

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