Reports Of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated

Tuesday September 20th, 2011

As a child, Marc Hauser‘s parents took him for an aptitude test, hoping to get a glimpse into his future. The test pronounced that Marc would be one of two things—a gas station attendant, or, a wildly successful artist. Hoping to steer Marc towards the latter, his parents bought him a camera. The rest is history, well, sort of.

After making out like gangbusters selling prints at summer camp, Marc declared to his family that he was to be a photographer. Soon after (at only 13) he began assisting renowned photographer Stan Malinowski for Playboy. By 15, Marc was being sent out to shoot his own assignments of then up and coming celebrities including Carly Simon and Julia Roberts.

From there, Marc started shooting for publications such as Rolling Stone, Playboy and Spin which opened the doors for advertising work. Eventually Marc became the go to guy for celebrity portraits and ad shots. He worked with big name clients such as Pepsi, to Arista Records, to Microsoft, and his portraits are a like a Who’s Who of the 80s and 90s, including big names such as Woody Allen, Sophia Loren, John Mellencamp and many more.

You can hear about some of Marc’s more notable celebrity shoots here.

But then in it all came crashing down—literally—when on a shoot seven years ago in Seattle. The client insisted on Marc shooting from a 40 foot crane (even after Marc suggested other means of getting the photo). While shooting 40 feet in the air, the crane began to tip as they moved across a hill. Marc and his assistant fell to the ground, and they fell hard,

We were both knocked out. I remember frantically yelling at my assistant to drop his camera, but he refused, and it punctured his chest, leaving him paralyzed for life. I shattered my leg in five places and the impact of the fall had detached my retina from my eye, which has caused many complications.

For the next four years, Marc focused on getting his life and his leg back together. The leg needed to be completely rebuilt and his detached retina also made shooting difficult. He only shot one job during this time, an assignment that sent him to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He shot the entire project from a wheelchair. Out of the scene for so long, Marc lost touch with most of his clients, many actually believing him to be dead.

However, Marc’s now back and ready for action. But being thought dead is making the process of a comeback somewhat difficult. He even recently launched the Marc Hauser is NOT Dead campaign to properly inform clients of his availability, and existence.

Marc has slowly been rebuilding his brand and has started moving into motion work to attract new clients. He also has a new book coming out around Christmas, “Tattoo Stories,” which highlights amazing tattoos and the meaningful stories behind them. The book will be available at all major retailers and online.

So now you know, Marc Hauser is alive and kicking, and ready to shoot.

- Maria Luci