About Michael Hartman

About Michael: Michael studied architecture and design in Southern California. While studying design, he fell in love with photography. Shortly after, he came a cross a fashion photographer which had an opening to run a large scale production house in Santa Monica Ca. Michael worked many years under his mentor in fashion, producing high end fashion shoots, plus lighting for all the major magazines, catalogs and movie pr campaigns. He worked side by side with Smashbox Studios and many other major players in the industry. He was on set daily lighting for the masters on celebrity covers, music covers, high-end catalogs, and all while working in some of the most amazing studios and Case study homes in Los Angeles. After years of hard work Michael formed his own boutique lighting rental company which was tailored to the specific needs of fashion photographers traveling into LA to shoot. During this time Michael was shooting for major catalogs and in his spare time teaching lighting workshops in CA for Calumet Photo. Holding onto his love for design, he renovated a 1940's bungalow house and created a private portrait studio with guest house, and created a parking space for his location trailer a 1960's airstream AKA "The Silver Bullet". He later decided to sell the property and left for New York to pursue one of his passions combining, marketing, art, design, photography, and working with creative people as a Real Estate agent here in New York.