"It's just not an event in New York without Patrick there taking a picture!," says Marcus Schenkenberg. Through books, regular appearances on television and popular columns in New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, Interview, Ocean Drive and Hamptons Magazine, Patrick McMullan has become a de facto gatekeeper, deciding which events get covered and who gets seen on what pages. In the words of Village Voice columnist Michael Musto: "The truth is that if Patrick doesn't say hello to you, you simply don't exist."

What this means is that if a celebrity attends an opening, an actor the Oscars, a model the shows, or a socialite a fundraiser and Patrick isn't there to capture the event on film, they might as well have stayed home. What's sometimes lost however, in the star power of his subjects and his own growing celebrity, is the artistry of the imagery — the way he captures the personality behind the mask, the beauty he finds in spontaneous moments, the glamour he imbues where none is readily apparent to the casual observer. Flash photography or not, no celebrity looks as beautiful or glamorous as when they're caught in a candid but typically magical McMullan moment. He is a true Romantic, a devotee of old-world Hollywood glamor.

But life was not all glamor for the young photographer. Barely out of his teens, McMullan was diagnosed with cancer and took photographs from his hospital bed as a way of documenting what was happening to him. In the process, he recorded every friend, relative, doctor and nurse that visited during a long recovery. Thankfully for the rest of us, he recovered completely and hasn't stopped photographing the whirlwind around him ever since.

"I grew up in a very small town, very rural," McMullan says as we sit down in his studio. "At the time I didn't realize how small it was, but it was a very small town and I was a small-town boy. With big ideas," he adds in an arch aside, mocking himself.

Did you feel that you were special as a kid?

No, I think I felt less than special, which is partly why ... you know, I wasn't a very good athlete or anything, which means everything to you as a kid. And I had a very sick sister, so she got a lot of attention. Not that I didn't, but she was very ill. She was sick for a very long time and I think perhaps I was somewhat underlooked.

Were there just the two of you?

No, I have another sister. She's the bookkeeper for the studio.

Did you have many friends?

I was always popular. I don't mean popular really, but I was friendly with everyone. I had cousins I saw every summer, and my own set of friends at school.

Did you joke around as much when you were little?

No, actually I was a very serious child. I've kind of gotten less serious as I've gotten older.

I think we all do.

(laughing) Well, you actually start to realize how silly this whole trip is? I was a very serious child though, which does make me believe in reincarnation.