NEED TO KNOW

• Christopher Anderson, who took close-up photos of Karoline Leavitt and other White House leaders for Vanity Fair‘s interview series with Susie Wiles, told The Independent he did not intentionally make anyone look bad in the portraits
• His image of Leavitt got the biggest reaction after it was published on Dec. 16, since some internet commenters claimed they could see what looked like lip filler injection sites
• A White House spokesperson claimed Vanity Fair “intentionally photographed Karoline and the White House staff in bizarre ways, and deliberately edited the photos, to try to demean and embarrass them”

When Vanity Fair published its two-part interview series with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, the magazine also featured other prominent members of President Donald Trump‘s second administration, including press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Leavitt, 28, who is described as the Trump administration’s “mouthpiece” by Vanity Fair, was photographed up-close for a portrait in which apparent lip filler injection sites were clearly visible. The image sparked near-immediate disbelief online, with one commenter writing, “jumpscare” and another remarking, “no trigger warning is insane” on Vanity Fair‘s Instagram post.

The image was taken by photographer Christopher Anderson, who is known for his close-up portraits, which have also been published in The New York Times, Esquire, and The Wall Street Journal, among others.

“Very close-up portraiture has been a fixture in a lot of my work over the years,” he told The Independent after the Vanity Fair story — and its accompanying images — went viral on Tuesday, Dec. 16. “Particularly, political portraits that I’ve done over the years. I like the idea of penetrating the theater of politics.”

Anderson also photographed Wiles, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, homeland security adviser and deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, and deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs James Blair.

While all of their portraits were taken in a style similar to Leavitt’s, the photographer insisted he was not trying to portray anyone in an unflattering manner.

“I know there’s a lot to be made with, ‘Oh, he intentionally is trying to make people look bad’ and that kind of thing — that’s not the case,” Anderson told The Independent. “If you look at my photograph work, I’ve done a lot of close-ups in the same style with people of all political stripes.”

He did say he “found it interesting to be even closer” to Leavitt than the other White House officials featured in his Vanity Fair portfolio.

“Above all else, [I] try to cut through the image that politics want to project and get at something that is more truthful,” Anderson added.

The photographer also claimed that Miller — whom he photographed sitting with his arm draped over a couch in the White House with a stern expression on his face — came up to him after the photoshoot to discuss how he depicted the White House leaders.

“When we were finished, [Miller] came up to me and he said, ‘You know you have a lot of power in the discretion you use to be kind to someone in your photographs,’ ” Anderson told The Independent. “And I look at him and I said, ‘You know, you do too.’ ”

The photographer added, “I don’t know how much he related to that.”

When reached for comment about Anderson’s interview with The Independent, White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told PEOPLE, “It’s clear that Vanity Fair intentionally photographed Karoline and the White House staff in bizarre ways, and deliberately edited the photos, to try to demean and embarrass them.”

Rogers continued, “Karoline is a beautiful person and truly one of the most incredible people you will meet in politics, and she is doing an extraordinary job serving the American people as the White House Press Secretary.”

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Leavitt has not publicly commented on her Vanity Fair portrait. While the internet had plenty to say about her appearance in the photo, Trump himself has also made a point to praise the press secretary’s looks, and specifically, her lips, in the past.

While departing from Israel on Air Force One on Oct. 13, the president, 79, took questions from pool reporters with Leavitt nearby.

“How’s Karoline doing? Is she doing good?” Trump asked the press before assuring them that his top spokesperson would “never” be replaced. As a reporter began to ask him a question, Trump said of Leavitt: “That face… and those lips, they move like a machine gun.”

And during an August interview with Newsmax, Trump praised both Leavitt’s work and her physical appearance.

“She’s become a star. It’s that face, it’s that brain, it’s those lips — the way they move, they move like she’s a machine gun,” Trump said with a smile. He added, “She’s a star, and she’s great. I don’t think anybody has ever had a better press secretary than Karoline. She’s been amazing.”