Vanity Fair Photographer Reveals Epstein Sent 'Massive' Bodyguard to 'Intimidate' Him Into Handing Over Pictures

Source: MEDIAite

Jan 6th, 2026, 1:02 pm


Christopher Anderson, the Vanity Fair photographer whose portraits of top White House officials helped propel the article to viral status last month, revealed on Tuesday that he had been asked to photograph Jeffrey Epstein in 2015 — and shared eyebrow-raising details about the encounter.

The two-part exposé by Vanity Fair reporter Chris Whipple included content from multiple on-the-record conversations with Trump White House officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, chief of staff Susie Wiles, press secretary Karoline Leavitt, and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

The article itself brought a massive amount of buzz, and Anderson’s photos raised that to a nuclear level, with harsh lighting, unflinchingly close-up views of their faces, and posed photos that seemed clearly intended to communicate critical judgment of these people and the roles they were playing in Trump’s second term. Anderson defended the photos against his critics as photojournalism, as opposed to the retouching and flattery expected in celebrity portraits.

The ongoing controversy over the release of the Epstein files continues to spark speculation about the connections the deceased child sex predator had with President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton, and numerous other rich and influential men. “Yes, that’s Jeffrey Epstein,” Anderson began a caption for an Instagram post on Tuesday. In the post, he shared multiple photographs he said were taken when he was assigned to “make a portrait of Epstein to accompany an article” by Michael Wolff for New York magazine.

Read more: https://www.mediaite.com/online/vanity-fair-photographer-reveals-epstein-sent-massive-bodyguard-to-intimidate-him-into-handing-over-pictures/