Stewart Shining is a New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

-based photographer of contemporary actors, musicians, and models. Shining, born in Burlington, Vermont, and who grew up in Rapid City, South Dakota

Rapid City, South Dakota

Rapid City is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of South Dakota, and the county seat of Pennington County. Named after Rapid Creek on which the city is established, it is set against the eastern slope of the Black Hills mountain range. The population was 67,956 as of the 2010 Census. Rapid...

, studied at the Parsons School of Design in the early 1980s and has been commissioned by both Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair (magazine)

Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...

and Vogue

Vogue (magazine)

Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...

. He has worked on ad campaigns for Abercrombie & Fitch

Abercrombie & Fitch

Abercrombie & Fitch is an American retailer that focuses on casual wear for consumers aged 18 to 22. It has over 300 locations in the United States, and is expanding internationally....

, Victoria's Secret

Victoria's Secret

Victoria's Secret is an American retailer of women's wear, lingerie and beauty products. It is the largest segment of publicly-traded Limited Brands with sales of over US$5 billion and an operating income of $1 billion in 2006...

, J. Crew, Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren is an American fashion designer and business executive; best known for his Polo Ralph Lauren clothing brand.-Early life:...

 and Express

Express (store)

EXPRESS is an American fashion retailer headquartered in Columbus, Ohio and New York, New York. Express operates over 550 stores in the United States and generates $1.8 billion in annual sales.-History:...

. In 2001, he photographed Elsa Benítez

Elsa Benítez

Elsa Benítez is a Mexican model perhaps best known for her appearances in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, including appearing on the cover in 2001.-Career:...

, Luján Fernández

Luján Fernández

Luján Fernández is a former Argentine model, who appeared on the covers of several fashion magazines.-Early life:Luján Fernández grew up with an affinity for acting and from early childhood was involved with several local television programs. She was a teenager TV star before becoming a model, and...

, Daniela Peštová

Daniela Peštová

Daniela Peštová is a Czech model. She was born in Teplice, Czech Republic, and was discovered by the Madison Modeling Agency's Dominique Caffin. She had plans to attend college but after winning a modelling contest she moved to Paris to sign with Madison Modeling Agency...

, and Shakara Ledard

Shakara Ledard

Shakara Ledard is a model and actress, originally from The Bahamas, and now residing in New York.She has posed for Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue as well as for Maxim Magazine. Ledard has been featured in music videos for Justin Timberlake, Usher and Babyface...

 for the Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...

s Swimsuit Issue

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue

The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue is published annually by Sports Illustrated. It features fashion models wearing swimwear in exotic locales. According to some, the magazine is the arbiter of supermodel succession. In addition, the issue is a media nexus that in 2005 carried in advertising....

, and one of his photos of Benítez (pictured right) was selected for the cover. He has continued to participate as a regular photographer for the annual Swimsuit Issue and recently shot for the upcoming "body painting" feature for 2011.

One of Shining's favorite photos occurred on assignment in Phuket

Phuket Province

Phuket , formerly known as Thalang and, in Western sources, Junk Ceylon , is one of the southern provinces of Thailand...

, Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

 when a model jumped in the rain-pelted ocean. His photo credits are lengthy and varied. He has shot a pre-teen Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman

Natalie Hershlag , better known by her stage name Natalie Portman, is an actress with dual American and Israeli citizenship. Her first role was as an orphan taken in by a hitman in the 1994 French action film Léon, but major success came when she was cast as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel...

, and more recently, when Drew Barrymore

Drew Barrymore

Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...

 was named People Magazine's 2007 "World's Most Beautiful Person" Shining was chosen as the photographer. He has produced numerous covers for Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

magazine including covers in back to back months in 2002. He has also had numerous cover shots for Lucky

Lucky (magazine)

Lucky is a shopping and style magazine which calls itself the " Ultimate Shopping Guide " and " The Magazine About Shopping ." Lucky "showcases what to wear and how to wear it, making fashion and beauty fun and accessible." Available by subscription, issues are published once a month and offer...

, Self

Self (magazine)

Self magazine is an American magazine for women that specializes in health, fitness, nutrition, beauty and happiness. Published by Condé Nast Publications 12 times a year, it has a circulation of 1,486,992 and a total audience of 5,541,000 readers, according to its corporate media kit. The...

 and Glamour

Glamour (magazine)

Glamour is a women's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. Founded in 1939 in the United States, it was originally called Glamour of Hollywood....

. Among his recent photo shoot subjects are Evangeline Lilly

Evangeline Lilly

Evangeline Lilly is a Canadian actress, best known for her role as Kate Austen in the ABC drama, Lost.-Early life:...

, Pink

Pink (singer)

Alecia Beth Moore , better known by her stage name Pink , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actress....

, Keira Knightley

Keira Knightley

Keira Christina Knightley born 26 March 1985) is an English actress and model. She began acting as a child and came to international notice in 2002 after co-starring in the film Bend It Like Beckham...

, and Alessandra Ambrosio

Alessandra Ambrosio

Alessandra Corine Ambrósio is a Brazilian model. Ambrosio is best known for her work with Victoria's Secret and was chosen as the first spokesmodel for the company's "PINK" line...

. In 2008, Shining took Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys

Alicia Augello Cook , better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. She was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. At age seven, Keys began playing the piano...

' publicity shots for As I Am

As I Am

As I Am is the third studio album by American recording artist Alicia Keys. It was released in the United States on November 13, 2007 by J Records. Recording sessions for the album took place at various recording studios during 2005 to 2007...

. Also, in 2008 his photos of Rachel Bilson

Rachel Bilson

Rachel Sarah Bilson is an American actress. Bilson grew up in a California show business family, and made her television debut in 2003, subsequently becoming well known for playing Summer Roberts on the prime time drama series The O.C. Bilson made her film debut in the 2006 film The Last Kiss and...

 appeared in Lucky

Lucky (magazine)

Lucky is a shopping and style magazine which calls itself the " Ultimate Shopping Guide " and " The Magazine About Shopping ." Lucky "showcases what to wear and how to wear it, making fashion and beauty fun and accessible." Available by subscription, issues are published once a month and offer...

.

Shining serves on the Robert Mapplethorpe

Robert Mapplethorpe

Robert Mapplethorpe was an American photographer, known for his large-scale, highly stylized black and white portraits, photos of flowers and nude men...

Foundation, and he has volunteered to take photographs on behalf of the Heart Gallery of New Jersey to help children find adoptive parents.

External links

• Personal website