Keith Munyan, Jr.

Keith Owen Munyan, Jr. (Celebrity photographer in Los Angeles, California)
Born	April 10, 1961 Leesville, Vernon Parish Louisiana Reared in Mangham Richland Parish
Spouse	Single Parents: Keith "Moose" Munyan, Sr. Lucille Carter Munyan

Keith Owen Munyan, Jr. (born April 10, 1961), is a commercial photographer based in Los Angeles, California, whose client list includes a dozen or more actors and actresses. His work has appeared in magazines, album packaging, books, billboards, calendars, television, and films.

For eighteen years before he became a photographer, Munyan was a model and appeared in such television series as Extra, Hard Copy, and Access Hollywood. He was featured on billboards and calendars for Budweiser Light and Diet Coke, acted in commercials, and modeled swimsuits." He is a wedding photographer with a studio in Palm Springs, California, but his main work is done at his residence in North Hollywood in the San Fernando Valley.

Background

Munyan is a native of Leesville in Vernon Parish in western Louisiana, the home of the United States Army base at nearby Fort Polk. His father, Keith "Moose" Munyan, Sr. (1932-1996), a native of Jackson in southern Ohio and a corporal in the United States Marine Corps in the Korean War, coached in Leesville from 1959 to 1963. When Keith was two years of age, his family moved to the village of Mangham in Richland Parish in northeastern Louisiana. The senior Munyan coached football, basketball, and baseball at tiny Mangham High School from 1963 to 1989. Football teams under Coach Munyan compiled an outstanding record of 204 wins, 78 losses, and 6 ties. He led his Mangham Dragons to sixteen district championships and was selected "District Coach of the Year" on eighteen occasions. In 2003, Coach Munyan was inducted posthumously into the Louisiana High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame. From 1975 to 1979, Keith Munyan played football under his father's coaching as well as basketball and baseball.

Munyan's mother, the former Lucille Carter (1931-2013), a native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, served on the Mangham Town Council, was active in the United Methodist Church, and retired from the federal agency, the Farmers Home Administration office in Mangham. Munyan has two sisters, both of whom are veteran educators, Toby M. Butler (born 1955) and husband Michael Kent Butler (born 1954) of Mangham and Debbie M. Price (born 1957) and husband George Allen Price, Jr. (born 1956), of Winnsboro in nearby Franklin Parish.

After high school, Munyan attended the University of Louisiana at Monroe (then Northeast Louisiana University) but did not graduate. He instead became a decorator for a department store in Dallas, Texas, prior to launching his modeling career, which entailed travel, including a trip as far away as Barcelona, Spain.

Self-educated photographer

Munyan is a self-educated photographer. His experience as a model helped him to make the transition because while he was being photographed over the years, he "listened a lot regarding lighting and shooting. I found it easier for me because I enjoyed working with people." Munyan described patience as "the key to photography. Don't rush." He indicated that he is innovative and will "try anything, because I'm not always right. . . . "

Munyan once photographed Beth Broderick, who played the character Aunt Zelda on ABC's Sabrina the Teenage Witch. The program used all of his photographs, and the assignment led to new clients: Hilary Duff, Jessica Simpson, Cindy Crawford, Carmen Electra, Kelly Clarkson, Billy Dee Williams, and Rachel Melvin of NBC's Days of Our Lives soap opera. In photographs of Melvin for Agenda magazine, Munyan used dead yucca trees that he had procured from his own property. Often he finds that various kinds of wood enhance the photographs.

Munyan describes proper lighting as the key to good photographs: "I've learned how to adjust my lighting around my clients. I figure out how to make it hotter, warmer, darker, depending on their skin tones, their hair, their makeup. . . . "

Celebrity clients

Munyan photographed Kelly Clarkson in 2004 as the first ever winner in the American Idol program on Fox Television. Another Munyan client is Mackenzie Rosman, who as a child star played Ruthie Camden on the former Seventh Heaven television series broadcast by Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Munyan said that in working with celebrities, he asks them to think of the people that they love or about their pets. He said that most celebrities are pleasant to photograph, but occasionally there are clock-watchers eager to be elsewhere. He recalled an unnamed model who posed for the trade publication Sophisticated Hair became so impatient that she threatened to walk out of the photo shoot. Munyan convinced her to remain patient so that he could take excellent photographs for the magazine.

Munyan has also photographed male models, including a photo shoot in book form called Hard, Solid, and Rare.

Stormy Daniels v. Donald Trump

Early in 2018, Munyan emerged one of four witnesses regarding allegations advanced by pornographic actress and screenwriter Stormy Daniels, who claims that she had a sexual relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump from 2006 to 2007 and was paid $130,000 to keep the matter private. Munyan said that he listened to at least seven telephone conversations between Daniels and Trump which involved the offer of a condominium in Florida and an appearance on Trump's former television series, The Apprentice. "That man [Trump] can talk about nothing for hours," Munyan said.

Munyan said that his connection to Daniels developed because both are Louisiana born, she in Baton Rouge, and both enjoy horses. Daniels is recognized as a nationally ranked equestrian.

Munyan, a homosexual, said that Daniels, who is estranged from her parents, considers both he and his partner, John Dean Baralle (born October 29, 1960), to be "my dads." Barelle donated to the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016 and has expressed continued anti-Trump comments on the Internet.

In Facebook and Instagram posts in 2017, Munyan offered thanks to:

transgendered people serving bravely in our military" and to the "trans community in general for showing the world the true strength, perseverance, and resilience a human being can possess. Our president is an absolute moron and he will go down in history as such. . . . I love each and every one of my trans friends.