Three days. 580 8th Avenue, twentieth floor. Very possibly the last New York dates of 2026.
Why New York gets so little of the year
Because the studio is shared between three cities and there are only so many weeks in a diary. London holds the institutional work, Los Angeles holds the screen work, and New York gets the concentrated middle — three or four days at a time, booked solid, and then gone.
That scarcity is not a marketing device. It is simply how the year divides. But it does mean that if you have been meaning to sit for a portrait in Manhattan, September is the appointment to make rather than the one to consider.
What comes out of these three days
Two kinds of work, mostly.
The first is theatrical. New York actors carry themselves differently from Los Angeles actors — there is stage in the posture, and a willingness to be looked at properly rather than prettily. That suits how I light. One dominant source, deep shadow, and a face that has to hold its own ground. Casting directors on both coasts respond to it because it looks like a still from something rather than a photograph of somebody.
The second is executive. Midtown is eight blocks from more institutional capital than most countries hold, and almost all of it is represented online by portraits that could belong to anyone. Finance, law, media leadership — the people who commission these portraits are usually the ones with the most to say and the least said about them visually. A properly made executive portrait is not a nicer headshot. It is a statement of standing, and it lasts about ten years.
I also take legacy commissions in New York when the diary allows: portraits made because a person is worth recording. Those need the full two hours and should be booked well ahead.
