Faculty
Frank W. Ockenfels 3 is one of the most sought-after portrait photographers in America. His portraits of such diverse personalities as Drew Barrymore, Jerry Seinfeld, Hilary Clinton, Kurt Cobain, Tom Waits, Spike Lee and Martin Scorcese have appeared in leading magazines throughout the world. Ockenfels’ work is seen frequently in Rolling Stone, Time, Entertainment Weekly, Us, Premiere, Esquire, New York Magazine and Spin. His work (including collaborations with artist Robert Longo) has appeared in galleries and museums in New York, Los Angeles and Berlin.
His images are also featured in many award-winning publications including American Photography 9, S.P.D. 25th Anniversary Annual, Creative 21 and the 72nd edition of the Art Direction Annual. Frank has also shot album covers for David Bowie, REM, Queen Latifah, Shawn Colvin, Willie Nelson, Jackson Browne, Robbie Robertson, Melissa Etheridge and Don Henley among others. In addition, he has directed music videos for artists Blues Traveler, Better Than Ezra, Local H, Billy Mann, 1000 Mona Lisas, Chris Whitley and Alice in Chains, and has directed commercials for clients including Kodak, Champion, U.S. Robotics, Converse, Nike and K. Swiss.
Frank has photographed movie posters including Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Harry Potter 3, Vanity Fair, Chronicles of Riddick, Starsky & Hutch for studios such as Miramax, Paramount, Focus Features, and Warner Brothers and has done TV campaigns for all the major networks including The WB, ABC, NBC, CBS, Lifetime, Showtime TNT and Fox.
Frank’s ability to adapt to unusual ten minute situations as well as staying away from the obvious seem to be his trademark. He believes in once meeting someone to then decide what the image will be, working with existing light and making light collaborate with the subject to create the moment. In many ways Frank is unconventional and believes that photography can still have moments of purity without being overly conceptualized or retouched.
