Man Behind Karoline Leavitt's Viral Vanity Fair Pic Defends Image & Sparks MAGA Meltdown

We already knew that Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's makeup should never be captured up close, but boy did that Vanity Fair photo really put things into perspective — no pun intended. Leavitt was definitely done dirty by Vanity Fair with the jarring unfiltered pic that has been going viral this week. The photographer behind the attention-grabbing photo is proud of his work. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, MAGA is really, really mad about it.

The photo of Leavitt in the viral Vanity Fair article clearly involved some specific artistic choices. The extra close close-up photo of Leavitt immediately made the rounds online with folks saying she looked much older than she is, making fun of her cake-y makeup, and pointing out apparent evidence that she recently got some fresh lip filler. Christopher Anderson, the photographer who snapped the money shot, has now been speaking out about his work. And, according to him, it's strange that folks are criticizing him for simply capturing the way Leavitt actually looks. 

"People seem to be shocked that I didn't use Photoshop to retouch out blemishes and her injection marks. I find it shocking that someone would expect me to retouch out those things," Anderson told The Washington Post. He asked, "If presenting what I saw, unfiltered, is an attack, then what would you call it had I chosen to edit it and hide things about it, and make them look better than they look?" Based on what they're saying online, though, it's clear that the MAGA crowd thinks he should have made some edits.

While speaking to The Washington Post, Christopher Anderson noted, "I'm surprised that a journalist would even need to ask me the question of 'Why didn't I retouch out the blemishes?' Because If I had, that would be a lie. I would be hiding the truth of what I saw there." This is hard to argue with; this was photo journalism — not a selfie for Karoline Leavitt's Instagram grid. Yet, the comments section on a Daily Mail article quoting Anderson's interview definitely disagrees. 

"Liberals disparage women as they claim to support them. Losers," one commenter wrote. Others agreed with the claims of a double standard. Someone else felt that Leavitt was targeted because of her politics and wrote, "It's so gross how conservative women are treated by these losers." A handful of commenters on the Instagram post from Vanity Fair expressed similar sentiments. 

One Daily Mail commenter asserted, "Let's compare with your other 'close ups'. Bet they are all photoshopped." Yet, Anderson says that this photo is far from an outlier amidst his body of work. "Very close-up portraiture has been a fixture in a lot of my work over the years," he told The Independent, adding, " ... I've done a lot of close-ups in the same style with people of all political stripes." It's clear, though, that nothing he says will convince Leavitt fans that photographing her without the help of Photoshop is anything other than a major offense.