Artist Statement
Famous Portraits
Reed Stuart Rahn
In 1978, during a photo history class at Boise State University, I pulled a name from a hat: Arnold Newman. That moment lit a fire. A few years later, I transferred to Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, where I rose to the top of my class and had a portrait inducted into the Brooks Hall of Fame.
Soon after, I was assisting leading photographers in Chicago. In 1986, I would photograph my first editorial portrait of Herb Drinkwater in Scottsdale, Arizona. A year later, a friend urged me to send my work to New York. The phone rang and for the next 35 years, it didn’t stop.
From the cover of Time to the pages of National Geographic, I traveled the world, hired by top art directors and editors, capturing stories that mattered. The images in this collection are the finest from that journey, rare, soulful portraits shaped by light, empathy, and truth.
These are not just photographs. They are artworks created to endure. I believe these prints will stand the test of time and increase in value, like a modern day Leonardo da Vinci you can see a Mona Lisa in Monument Valley.
Now, at 67, I’m earning my MFA in photography to become a Professor. After 36 years of commercial work and 25 years of being a yogi I am in rediscovery, I return to my craft with fresh eyes blending analog soul with digital precision. Now we create a photographic print that can last over 400 years, longer than the computer's life that helped create it.