I’ve never considered myself much of a portraitist. My preference was to photograph still life and products, subjects that held still and were more predictable. Certainly, there were many assignments for corporate “headshots” over the years, and while they served a purpose and offered some human connection, they usually felt somewhat perfunctory and superficial.
For me, a good portrait goes beyond the idea of a good likeness of a person’s head; a good portrait reveals something about the subject–an energy that emanates from the image that leaves the viewer wanting to know more about the subject’s life, and how they can relate to the subject on a human level.
The many corporate headshot assignments forced me to get over my bias against photographing people, and somewhere along the way, I developed a desire to make portraits of people doing things that interested me personally. After years of photographing inanimate objects, I wanted to see if I could extract and portray a relatable human energy in my portrait subjects.
Opportunities to make more personal portraits began to present themselves in the form of pro bono assignments and simply seeking out and meeting interesting people and photographing them. A few of my favorites below.
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