Asa Mathat
Award-Winning Photographer
Once upon a time, 18-year-old Asa Mathat borrowed a friend’s camera, posed for his own test shots, and walked them into a San Francisco talent agency. The agent dismissed Asa’s modeling potential—but was struck by the photographs themselves. “Who took these? They’re fantastic.” In that moment, Asa’s true calling revealed itself.
What followed was a journey from living in Milan, creating fashion shoots, to chronicling some of the most influential figures of our time. His portraits of Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and even the Dalai Lama have appeared in the pages of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Fortune.
Today, while still recognized as a photographer with an uncanny ability to capture presence and power, Asa devotes much of his energy to his passion projects like Camp Enlightenment, a creative curriculum for at-risk youth. It’s there, teaching imagination and resilience, that his lens now focuses most clearly.