Marc Hauser

Marc Hauser (September 25, 1952 – December 30, 2018) was an American photographer from Chicago. He took photographs of celebrities like Woody Allen, John Belushi, Eric Clapton, Cindy Crawford, Mick Jagger, Michael Jordan, Sophia Loren, Oprah, Dolly Parton, and Dennis Rodman. He also took the picture for John Mellencamp‘s Scarecrow album cover.

A Chicago native, Hauser began making photos and processing film in his father’s basement darkroom when he was a teenager. In a 1994 interview with the Chicago Tribune, he said, “When I was a kid, people used to say, `You’ll never be anything.’ I wanted to prove they were wrong.” His hard work and ambition carried him through multiple comebacks: He quit drugs in the 1980s, adapted to the digital photography revolution in 1990s, survived a fall from a crane in 2008 that caused him to lose part of his right leg and the use of one eye. In 2015, he opened a portrait studio, offering family portrait sessions for $159 that he advertised through Groupon and Yelp.

In January 2018, he set up a website to sell prints of some of his portraits of celebrities and unknown people he had photographed for Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, music companies and personal projects.