Gregory Mancuso is an award-winning Los Angeles photographer with over 20 years experience. Gregory creates captivating pictures for advertising, editorial and corporate clients, and specializes in lifestyle imagery and environmental portraits that reveal the natural warmth and personality of his subjects within impeccably designed and lit compositions.
He has worked for many of our finest magazines, agencies, companies and assorted ne’er-do-wells. Using sensitivity, respect and heaping helpings of humor, Gregory is able to relax and gain the trust of his subjects, capturing their inner personality and essence within exceptional photos.
Whether they’re celebrities or nobodies, he has a knack for making those involved in the shoot, willing co-conspirators of the creative process, resulting in everyone contributing to the pleasant task of making striking imagery.
Photobook – CELEBRITIES & NOBODIES
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As a writer, Gregory has created numerous magazine articles and screenplays. He has a produced feature film credit for the thriller ONE GOOD TURN. He has sold scripts, directed TV commercials and was an assistant director for movies. His current project, INSIDE THE GAME, a comedic adventure fantasy, is currently in development at a film studio.
Feature screenplay – INSIDE THE GAME
After being sucked inside a kid’s computer game, a family can only return home if they win the game–which entails outwitting classic fairy tale characters, fighting killer beasts, and the wicked fairy they’re playing against–all before the laptop’s battery dies and they perish along with it.
INSIDE THE GAME takes place in a computer game called Fairy Tale Land and is a comedic adventure fantasy infused with magic, heart and damn scary thrills. What, you don’t think fairy tales are scary? They’re sissy baby stuff? Hah! Let’s see if you make it out alive when you’re trapped in a small cottage with three hungry and very pissed off bears who want to rip you a new one for eating their porridge and busting up their fine furniture. (more)
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ESSAYS
Essay | My big fun hanging out with “serious” Oscar-winning director Errol Morris
Hanging out with Oscar-winning director Errol Morris, I learn the “serious” filmmaker is actually a fun goofball. Morris has been my doc hero for many years and his latest film, TABLOID, is superb.
Errol Morris sure fooled me. If you’re familiar with this filmmaker’s serious-minded work, it’s logical to anticipate meeting a somber, reserved, deep thinking, perhaps even a somewhat humorless fellow. Nope. The guy I shook hands with is a combination of goofy Mel Brooks with a sprinkling of Steve Carrel silliness who’s powered by the hyper and mischievous energy of a quirky kid sputtering out of a hunkering six foot plus frame.
And I mean all that in a nice way. Because Morris is also quite a pleasant and down-to-earth guy who was a joy to hang out with. Although he was funny and playful, speaking with him, one could not help but also notice his grey head housed a keen, deep-thinking mind which was always percolating.
Filmmaker Errol Morris – photographer Gregory Mancuso ©
Roger Ebert has said, “After twenty years of reviewing films, I haven’t found another filmmaker who intrigues me more…Errol Morris is like a magician, and as great a filmmaker as Hitchcock or Fellini.” Ebert has placed Morris’s first feature GATES OF HEAVEN on his list of the 10 Best Films of All Time. Recently, the Guardian listed him as one of the ten most important film directors in the world.
So there you go, it ain’t just me. I’ve been a big fan of Morris going back 25 years, since the time I saw his first feature documentary GATES OF HEAVEN.
This night I was hired to shoot Morris at a screening of his latest film TABLOID. I was also paid to consume copious amounts of delicious food, champagne, hobnob with celebs, and relax in CAA’s most comfy and superb theater and watch a fine movie. Sometimes my jobs are such a hardship.
Tabloid movie trailer
First off, being the sophisticated film reviewer that I am, I have to tell you the rating I give TABLOID is my top “gotta-gotta-see”! Yes, that’s a rare, double-gotta rating. This true-story documentary was hilarious and made me laugh out loud more often than any Hollywood comedy concoction has in years.
But don’t just take my word for it. Here’s what an official professional film reviewer, Peter Debruge of Daily Variety has to say…
Proof that one must never underestimate another human’s capacity to rationalize anything, Errol Morris’ “Tabloid” is bonkers in all the best possible ways–a welcome return to perverse portraiture after a lengthy sojourn in the realm of more serious-minded subjects. With a former beauty queen in the hot seat, the “Fog of War” director applies his trademark truth-seeking methods to his wiliest subject yet: Joyce McKinney, a former Miss Wyoming-turned-Mormon “sex in chains” kidnapper, whose disarming candor masks untold levels of delusion.
There you go, an official thumbs-up. I went into the screening knowing zero about the film, and I think the best experience might be had by watching Tabloid without knowing a lot about it. Letting the unpredictable, true-life plot unfold like the demented fractured fairy tale it truly is. So I’m gonna refrain from describing the plot much. 
I’ll give you this much though…
With TABLOID, Errol Morris further redefines and pushes the boundaries of documentary film with the tale of the infamous “Case of the Manacled Mormon.” In 1977, Miss Wyoming Joyce McKinney flew to England with a pilot and a bodyguard to abduct the love of her life. Or was it to liberate him from a cult? Joyce, all of the people that cross her path, and the British tabloids help construct an epic RASHOMON-like tale that is as hilarious as it is unbelievable. Part black comedy, part film noir, TABLOID is always surprising and features one of the most captivating characters of Morris’s career.
There, satisfied? Well, tough nuggies, if you’re not. Go google yourself silly and find out detailed plot tidbits if you must, but I think you’re stabbing yourself in the foot to spite the nose on your face by doing so. Just go see it.
Anyway, after the screening, Morris held court for a Q&A. So after the fun of seeing this film, I got to have more fun because it’s turns out that this serious, ground-breaking director can be a kick-ass, improv, stand-up comedian. Go figure. 
He fielded questions from the audience, served up humorous anecdotes, told jokes and I cackled with laughter for a half hour. I do believe I snagged my monthly quota of yuks on this one job.
But enough of this silliness. Here’s the filmmaker in his own smart words.
“TABLOID is a return to my favorite genre-–sick, sad and funny–but of course, it’s more than that,” said Morris. “It is a meditation on how we are shaped by the media and even more powerfully, by ourselves. Joyce is a woman profoundly influenced by her dreams and, in a sense, she was living in a movie long before she came to star in my film.”
When asked about Joyce’s propensity for lying to the audience, Errol says, “To me, it isn’t about truth or lying. It’s about lying and self-deception. And I think that most of us—and I certainly include myself—convince ourselves of the truth of things, so that genuinely, we do not feel that we are lying about anything… Joyce underlines that theme quite eloquently when she says, ‘you can tell a lie enough times that you come to believe it’.”
He discussed his use of titles and graphics in this film, which are perhaps employed more heavily than in any of his previous films, and made a statement that stands to sum up his approach to filmmaking:
“I have this new theory of art… If people find it annoying and offensive? Better yet! I get so few opportunities to ply my trade, I haven’t made that many movies, and I think that every time I get an opportunity to make a movie, I should try to reinvent the form, at least in some way. I should do something different, just for the hell of it.”
Errol Morris on The Colbert Report
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Other Fantastic Errol Morris Films
THIN BLUE LINE
This is probably my favorite Morris film. It is so good that it won the Oscar for best documentary, and it was so effective that it done sprung an innocent man outta jail. What a wonderful double whammy!
THE THIN BLUE LINE is the fascinating, controversial true story of the arrest and conviction of Randall Adams for the murder of a Dallas policeman in 1976. Billed as “the first movie mystery to actually solve a murder,” the film is credited with overturning the conviction of Randall Dale Adams for the murder of Dallas police officer Robert Wood, a crime for which Adams was sentenced to death. With its use of expressionistic reenactments, interview material and music by Philip Glass, it pioneered a new kind of non-fiction filmmaking. Its style has been copied in countless reality-based television programs and feature films.
Terrence Rafferty in The New Yorker has called it “a powerful and thrillingly strange movie. Morris seems to want to bring us to the point at which our apprehension of the real world reaches a pitch of paranoia — to induce in us the state of mind of a detective whose scrutiny of the evidence has begun to take on the feverish clarity of hallucination.”
THE THIN BLUE LINE was voted the best film of 1988 in a Washington Post survey of 250 film critics. Premiere magazine, in a survey of films of the 1980s, described it as one of the most important and influential movies of the decade.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME
You better put on your thinking caps for this one, kids. Not a film to see late at night when you’re tired. It takes some concentrating but is well worth the effort and you’ll feel 33.333% smarter afterwards.
In 1992, Errol Morris finished A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME, about the life and work of Stephen Hawking, the physicist who is often compared to Einstein and who is paralyzed and has spent much of his life in a wheelchair. In this film adaptation of Hawking’s book about the origins of the universe, Morris has woven together graphics, interviews and archival material in a story about both Hawking’s life and science.
David Ansen in Newsweek has called it, “an elegant, inspirational and mysterious movie. Morris turns abstract ideas into haunting images, and keeps them spinning in the air with the finesse, and playfulness, of a master juggler”.
THE FOG OF WAR
Another Oscar winner here and it’s the story of America as seen through the eyes of the former Secretary of Defense, Robert S. McNamara. One of the most controversial and influential figures in world politics, he takes us on an insider’s view of the seminal events of the 20th Century. Why was this past Century the most destructive and deadly in all of human history? Are we doomed to repeat our mistakes? Are we free to make choices, or are we at the mercy of inexorable historical forces and ideologies?
QUAKER OATS COMMERCIAL
Here’s a commercial Morris made for Quaker Oats. This is not CGI or anything else along the lines of special effects. It’s a classical optical illusion called the Ames room. Even his commercials are darn interesting. Morris appears in this and is the guy in gray shirt.
ESPN TEAM SPIRIT
written by Los Angeles photographer & writer Gregory Mancuso
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Essay | The Ins And Outs Of Looking Attractive, Outside And Inside, In Photos And Out
A Los Angeles photographer gives practical and philosophical advice on how to look your best in photos.
Having photographed and observed a big bunch of celebrities and “normal” people for a couple of decades now, I’ve noticed a few attraction principles popping up again and again. Brilliant philosophical aesthetic theories my keen mind has uncovered, perchance? Nah, I never come up with big profound nuggets.
But here are some observations and psych tips you might want to mull over. Plus there’s a verbal cameo appearance from Audrey Hepburn. Action.
Now I don’t claim to be an expert or to even fully understand what’s going on, but I think I have some kind of handle on this attractive thingamajig that’s been dancing around in my viewfinder and mind for years.
First off, I’m talking about two versions: the “outside attractive” and the “inside attractive”. And the principles apply whether you’re being photographed or just hanging out amongst other humans with photographer in Los Angeles Greg Mancuso.
Sally Field portrait shot by Los Angles photographer Gregory Mancuso
Outside Attractive
Let’s look at the outside attractive first. One thing I’ve perceived is that people come across as most attractive when they’re not trying to be attractive. Not obsessing over it. Although we’re all on different levels of the physical beauty scale, it seems you can bump yourself up or down a peg or two depending on your mind-set.
Although a good photographer can finagle the best lighting, and guide you to the most flattering angle, facial expression etc., that only goes so far. Your internal dialogues have an impact on the external results.
A suggestion I’d make if you want to maximize your attractiveness is to try not to think about it. Try to just “be”. Work on getting a Zenny thing going. I know it’s a lot easier said than done, especially when you’re being photographed or scrutinized in some way. But I think if you think… ‘this is just a stupid photo, I don’t’ care how it turns out, it’s not life and death, it’s not important, 20 years from now it won’t matter’–it will mitigate mentally obsessing about it.
Even if it is an important photo for wide distribution or whatever, mentally treat it like dirt. What you can laugh at or pooh-pooh can’t rule you.
Another tip when it’s picture time is to think about another time. Something else that happened that day or even years ago. It doesn’t matter when or what. You can also try to imagine being in another place entirely. Perhaps a faraway paradise of any sort that suits you.
Relaxing on the beach of a lush tropical isle with a bevy of beautiful mermaids surfing the waves and playing a Beethoven sonata on their harps, is one of my favorite imaginings. Hey, I know that sounds wacky, but we’re working on distraction and cutting tension here, so getting out there on a loony limb might be the way to go.
Enzo Effect
Photo by Los Angeles photographer Gregory Mancuso
Along the lines of loony, something that may work for some of you is what I call the Enzo Effect. Enzo is my dog and he’s always in my studio and sometimes on location when I’m shooting a portrait. Dogs can provide the dual effect of being a calming influence and pleasant distraction. Many times I’ve seen Enzo saunter over to a stressed out person filled with trepidation about having their pictures taken, and just a few pets and nuzzles later, their anguish is melting away.
It’s actually been scientifically documented that blood pressure and heart rates drop while petting a dog or cat. Now Enzo is an especially soothing presence, and he’s even one of those Therapy Dogs who visit people in hospitals, but if you have a dog or other pet that is manageable, then bring them along to your shoot. It’s probably a good idea to run it past your photographer ahead of time.
(By the way, Enzo demands that I mention he’s available on a freelance basis. His rental rate is three jerky strips, one squeaky latex ball, two salami slices and five belly rubs per hour. Though I bet you could negotiate him down to the belly rubs and salami. He’s way over priced.)
Sally Field
Why don’t we now talk about this photo of Sally Field I took and see how some of the attractive principles played out. Although this is only the second shot taken and she wasn’t “ready”, and we took over a hundred shots later when we were really ready and set-up, this is the one I like the best.
Setting the scene, take one… Sally had just arrived and was casually talking with friends. I noticed she was in an easy, relaxed mood, and didn’t seem to have locked into have-to-look-like-a-pretty-celebrity frame of mind yet. So I suggested a few quick shots before the official shooting commenced. She said she hadn’t even taken her coat off yet, her hair wasn’t perfect yet, etc. But after some of my silly pleading, bowing, begging routine, she chuckled and kindly agreed to take a few.
The result was a picture that I believe captured the natural-beauty-Sally. It probably came about because she wasn’t obsessing about looking gorgeous because she was distracted by my antics and she wasn’t wrapped up in official photo session mode yet.
Another reason I like this image best is that in addition to capturing aspects of the physical beauty, it also gives a feel for attractive version two–the “inside attractive”. The best way I can describe this would be to say it’s the non-physical inner spirit thing, exuding a positive presence that makes others enjoy being in your presence. The human warmth felt when you’re actually there with that person.
It appears that the warm spirit I felt being with her in person, is hinted at in the photo as well. Although a good photographer can help bring out and reveal that warmth and positive presence, they can’t show what isn’t there.
Inside Attractive
So how does one create and project that beneficial inside element? Well it’s tricky and it can take some time cultivating virtuous thought patterns and behaviors depending on where you’re at. And in reality only you know what you know, and how the heck should I know? Huh? All I can do is throw out some stuff to chew on.
(Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen)
Me thinks it’s the interaction of several inter-related traits and behaviors that have to be worked on and juggled. But if you have to point to one primary thing it would revolve around the issue of narcissism. Everybody has narcissistic traits to some degree. We all have wants and needs that we would like to be fulfilled. But thinking the whole world revolves around the notion of fulfilling those wants and needs ain’t pretty.
(Agnes by Tony Cochran)
So taming one’s inflated sense of self importance will go a long way towards building the inside attractive. Try not to take yourself too seriously and above-it-all. Even if you are indeed the best-looking or richest or most powerful person in the room, don’t lord it over the others. You got to halt the haughty attitude as best you can.
Empathy
While self-importance is the big “don’t”, the big “do”, is cultivating and expressing empathy. Empathy involves the ability to put oneself into another’s shoes. So having compassion for those less fortunate and especially helping them out in a concrete way will supercharge your empathy engine. I found for myself, and have observed in others, that doing any kind of volunteer work will work wonders to get you down the right road.
If you want a push toward volunteering, check out Volunteer Match. If you have a dog, then look into helping out via Pet Therapy, and the national group Enzo and I work with is called the Delta Society.
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
I found someone who did a great job of expressing the empathy/beauty thing–Audrey Hepburn. As you probably know, Audrey was an iconic beauty and Oscar winning actress, who starred in over 25 films. She went on to follow up her immense success in Hollywood by later focusing on humanitarian activities. She was the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and often assisted destitute people in impoverished countries and was recognized for her efforts with the Presidential Medal of Freedom and Motion Picture Academy’s Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Here’s something she wrote which says it all…
For attractive lips,
Speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes,
Seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure,
Share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair,
Let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day.
For poise,
Walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.
People, even more than things,
Have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed,
And redeemed; never throw out anyone.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand,
You will find one at the end of each of your arms.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands;
One for helping yourself, and the other for helping others. (more)
<h3><em><strong>written by Los Angeles photographer & writer Gregory Mancuso</strong></em></h3>
written by Los Angeles photographer & writer Gregory Mancuso
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Essay | Cancer Can’t Catch Her – she peered into death’s eyes, spit in its face and lived happily ever after
A Los Angeles cancer survivor struts her stuff for a photo shoot, tells her touching story to the photographer, and brings about a rare occurrence–he’s inspired to write a poem. And the fair maiden is living happily ever after. photographer los angeles
Los Angeles cancer survivor pictures shot by photographer Gregory Mancuso ©
CANCER CAN’T CATCH HER
I know cancer can be fast
Just a blur
Just a flash
A loved one is here
Then catch
Then gone
They told this lady she was caught
You don’t have long
Just a blur
Just a flash
The fine lady did protest
My days are not half done
I have another marathon to run
Life to love
More fun in the sun
Doctors here and doctors there
They shook their heads
Not much we can do
Not many days left
This lady didn’t give up
She searched far and wide
And when all hope was lost
It was found again
There’s a new medicine trick
It sounded like magic
But it hadn’t been tried
The lady bravely stood up
Let’s give it a ride.
…and then…
Lo and behold
Just like a fairy tale
The enchantment did work
The fair maiden was saved
I’ve seen cancer catch many, and drag them away. Uncles, aunts, cousins. Two friends, too young. One father, too sad.
So I was pleased, when this lady asked a favor of me. Make pictures for others, who are sick, to see, how they may be.
Show me running, healthy, happy and free.
Catch how I can be fast
Just a blur
Just a flash
The fine lady did attest
My days are not half done
I have another marathon to run
Life to love
More fun in the sun
written by Los Angeles photographer & writer Gregory Mancuso
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Photobook – POOCHES & PEEPS
I confess. I’m a dog nut. So when people ask what I enjoy shooting the most, it’s not much of a surprise when I say dogs. And dogs with their beloved people. I’m always hoping to visually capture an element of the special bond that has existed between canines and humans for centuries.
Here’s an excerpt from an untitled dog poem I especially like from author Gene Hill…
He is the part of me that can reach out into the sea. When I am angry, he clowns to make me smile. When I am happy, he is joy unbounded. When I am a fool, he ignores it. When I succeed, he brags. Without him, I am only another man. With him, I am all-powerful. He is loyalty itself. He has taught me the meaning of devotion. With him, I know a secret comfort and a private peace.
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Pet Therapy
Pet Partners therapy dog on the job – photos by Los Angeles photographer Gregory Mancuso
Greg with therapy dog Enzo
Got dog? Greg and his dog, Enzo, are a pet therapy team and they say it’s the most fun and rewarding volunteer work you can do.
As you can see, Enzo and his fellow working dogs, bring a lot of comfort and smiles to humans in their community who need it the most. These furry care-givers help sick, physically challenged and special needs adults and kids.
Below is more info in case you’re curious or want to get your own beast involved. The pet therapy group Enzo and Greg belong to is a national group called Pet Partners and they have local chapters all around the country. If you live in the L.A. area, this is the local chapter Paws4Healing
If you have a pet and might want to join, please click over to the Pet Therapy page. There’s tons of info, videos and the exercises involved in the evaluation test to get certified. Enzo says it ain’t that hard a test and there are different skill levels of certification, in case your pet can’t do all the test exercises perfectly. And it’s not just for dogs. Cats and a variety of different animals can join. Enzo even has a bunny, Oreo, in his Paws4Healing group.
Los Angeles photographer Gregory Mancuso works in Los Angeles California and through out the state, providing creative advertising, corporate, magazine, and dog photography. This LA pet photographer has a studio in Marina Del Rey CA where he shoots many celebrities. Please come back often and thank you for stopping by. Beach Bums Realty – Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey, Venice beach real estate agents
