Cinematic Headshots for Actors, CEOs, Executives & Corporate Professionals in New York
Cinematic Headshots for Actors, CEOs, Executives & Corporate Professionals in New York
British Photographer Roryβs actor headshots, corporate portraits, and creative imagery are defined by cinematic lighting, emotional depth, and timeless composition.
Rory Lewis brings a signature European cinematic style to the high-stakes heart of New York City. Operating from his Midtown Manhattan studio, Rory merges the classical precision of a British portraitist with the bold, fast-paced energy of New Yorkβs corporate and creative elite. We donβt just capture your face; we capture your authority, your versatility, and your unmistakable presence.
Step 1: Email the Studio
Email Alexandra at AL@RORYLEWIS.STUDIO or fill in form below and share a little about yourself, your headshot goals, and whether youβd like to shoot in LA or NYC or London.
Step 2: Get Session Details
Rory will carefully review your inquiry and send you full session experiences, pricing, and current availability, so you can move forward with clarity.
Rory Lewis Captures Sir Patrick Stewart (Rory Lewis Photographer)
The New York Eye. A Museum-Grade Legacy.
With over twenty years behind the lens, Rory Lewis is an award-winning British Portraitist whose work is held in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery (London). Having captured defining images of royalty and Hollywood icons like Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen, Rory brings that same master-level precision to every Manhattan session.
Influenced by the dramatic lighting techniques of the Old Masters, Rory specializes in a cinematic aesthetic that strips away artifice to reveal the true character of New Yorkβs top talent. Each session is a tailored masterclass in direction, ensuring that whether you are a Broadway lead, a C-suite executive, or a digital influencer, your portrait carries the prestigious visual edge required for the world's most competitive markets.
π The Cinematic Edge: Actor Headshots for High-Stakes Casting
In a sea of flat-lit LA headshots, we specialize in depth, shadow, and intention. We don't "take" photosβwe direct character. By identifying your "type" and applying cinematic lighting, we create the images that stop a Casting Director's scroll
πΌ Corporate & Editorial Headshots
For professionals, entrepreneurs, and executives, your headshot is your brandβs handshake.
Roryβs editorial-style portraits balance confidence and approachability, ideal for LinkedIn, company websites, and press profiles. Sessions can take place in-studio or on-location across Manhattan and the greater New York City area.
Trusted by the worldβs most influential organizations, Rory Lewis architects the visual identity of global industry leaders and C-Suite executives. Simultaneously, his cinematic portraiture serves as a catalyst for talent, with Roryβs subjects consistently securing leading roles in major studio features and Emmy-award-winning productions.
Step 1: Email the Studio
Email Alexandra at AL@RORYLEWIS.STUDIO or fill in form below and share a little about yourself, your headshot goals, and whether youβd like to shoot in LA or NYC or London.
Step 2: Get Session Details
Rory will carefully review your inquiry and send you full session experiences, pricing, and current availability, so you can move forward with clarity.
π§ Studio Location
π Midtown Manhattan Studio 580 8th Ave 20th Floor, New York, NY 10018.
The Manhattan Experience
Premier Midtown Location: Sessions are held in a professional creative hub at 580 8th Avenue, easily accessible for professionals across all sectors.
Signature Cinematic Lighting: Expertise in Chiaroscuro and Tenebrism creates portraits with depth and drama that stand out to casting directors and industry leaders alike.
High-Stakes Direction: Roryβs process focuses on "continuous movement and direction," capturing the spontaneity and truth needed for modern branding.
Industry Approval: Recommended by major industry platforms like Spotlight and Backstage Casting, Rory provides the visual shorthand for professional excellence.
Sir Patrick Stewart died on Wednesday, 28 October 2026, in Los Angeles. He was 86.
I heard the news this morning and went straight to the archive. I wanted to look at him again the way I saw him through the lens: still, unguarded, and entirely present. Some sitters perform for the camera. Patrick simply arrived, and let the light do the rest.
Rory Lewis is now available in San Francisco and the Bay Area for corporate and executive commissions
Over twenty-three years I have photographed a reigning monarch, five British Prime Ministers, and some of the most closely watched figures in global finance, among them Ray Dalio.
Cinematic Portraiture in the Old Master Tradition
Light is the story
On Sunday 1 November, Iβm teaching a two-hour live masterclass on Zoom: Cinematic Portraiture in the Old Master Tradition.
It is a private Telegram group, open only to people who have taken a workshop or one-to-one tuition with me. It is not a general photography forum. Nobody posts their holiday snaps or argues about camera brands. Everyone in it has stood in the studio, worked with the same principles and speaks the same language.
Grahamβs new series, Nocturne, makes its global debut on Friday, October 30, 2026 with the first two episodes, with new episodes every Friday through December 25 on Apple TV. Originally titled Lazarus, the 10-episode drama was written by Rowan Joffe and John Hlavin and also stars Liev Schreiber and Zazie Beetz. Schreiber plays Jonah Lynn, a former soldier turned homicide detective who leaves Philadelphia for a quiet life in a small Western Pennsylvania town, only for the town and his family to come under attack from the serial killer Jurek Walter, played by Graham
Following portrait sessions across Los Angeles and New York, I am returning to my Central London studio from 11 to 24 November for a dedicated run of actor headshot sittings.
In an industry where casting directors form an impression in the fraction of a second a thumbnail appears on Spotlight, a headshot cannot simply document your likeness. It must reveal character, communicate presence, and establish immediate credibility.
On Thursday 12 November 2026, I am giving my Central London studio over entirely to thirty-minute update sessions.It is the only date I will offer them in London this year.
Each session is two looks and one image, fully retouched.
In August I wrote that September could well be my last New York dates of the year. It wasnβt. Four more days have opened in early November, Thursday the 5th to Sunday the 8th, and Iβm giving them to actors.
The timing is good. Images made now are proofed, retouched and on your profiles well before the new year, when casting picks up again and every office in the city wants to see something current. It is also the last clear window before the holidays take over the calendar.
A return sitting at the Downtown Los Angeles studio, and the case for every actor owning a villain.
Chauncey Alan has played Caesar. This time he came back to the Los Angeles studio wanting to be Cassius.
Not literally, but the brief was close. Chauncey needed a villainous headshot for his castings: one image that tells a casting director, in the half-second a thumbnail gets, that he can be trusted with the man nobody should trust. Shakespeare gave Caesar the line that describes exactly what we were after: βYond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; / He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.β
From Monday 16 to Thursday 26 November Iβll be back at the Farringdon studio. London visits have a way of filling quickly, so I wanted to set out plainly what the diary has room for this time: headshots and portraits for individuals, executive and C-suite sittings, military portraiture, formal and royal commissions, and a small number of one-to-one tuition sessions for photographers who want to learn how this kind of light is made.
Some faces arrive at the studio already halfway to a painting. Devin McElvogue walked into the Downtown Los Angeles studio with a head of tight copper curls, a red beard, and a pair of hazel eyes that, under the right light, turn almost amber. A gift for a portrait photographer, but also a responsibility: when a sitterβs colouring is this distinctive, the headshot has to render it truthfully. Casting directors are not booking an idea of a redhead. They are booking Devin.
Christian Bell stepped into the Downtown Los Angeles studio carrying a look that immediately commands attention. The striking two-tone afro β rich dark curls giving way to a crown of silver-white β became the defining feature of the session, but it was the face beneath it that made the images sing.
Travis Quentin Young brought the full weight of his Louisiana upbringing and Los Angeles-honed versatility into the Downtown Los Angeles studio. Born in Lake Charles and already performing on national television by the age of ten, Young carries a quiet authority that belies his years on screen.
Billy Hirsch arrived at the Downtown Los Angeles studio with the same unfiltered energy that defines his work. Brooklyn-born and now a Southern California transplant, he carries that unmistakable East Coast edge softened by West Coast ease β a combination that makes him instantly compelling on camera.
One day of thirty-minute update headshots in Midtown Manhattan β two looks, one image fully retouched, and the only date I am offering them in New York this year.
People sometimes ask me why an actor should sit for a headshot with a portrait photographer rather than a headshot photographer. It is a fair question, and the honest answer is that the distinction shouldn't exist. A headshot is a portrait β it is simply a portrait with a job to do. It has to walk into a casting director's inbox at nine in the morning, sit alongside three hundred others, and make somebody stop scrolling. That is not achieved with a white seamless and a ring light. It is achieved by looking properly at a face, understanding what it does, and lighting it the way the old masters lit theirs: with intent.
Last week Clancy Brown came to the Downtown Los Angeles studio, and I finally had the chance to build a picture I have been carrying around in my head for some time: a man at a table, with bread and wine and fruit in front of him, lit the way the Old Masters lit their suppers.
Some weeks stay with you. This one, at the United Nations in New York, is among them.
During this year's General Assembly I had the privilege of photographing two leaders I have had the honour of sitting before my camera in the past: His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan, and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Andy Burnham.
Private, intensive photography tuition led by Rory Lewis β an award-winning portraitist recognised by the National Portrait Gallery, Portrait of Britain, and Hasselblad Masters.
A dedicated space for my workshop and tuition clients to continue their journey with ongoing support, resources, and direct access.
After years of running headshot workshops and one-on-one tuition sessions in New York, London and Los Angeles, Iβve created a private Telegram group exclusively for my tuition clients.
This is not a general photography community β it is a focused, members-only space where you will find:
I'm delighted to be back at my Midtown Manhattan studio from Thursday 5 to Saturday 7 November, with a limited number of sessions available across three days.
I am very grateful to All About Photo, and to its founder and director Sandrine Hermand-Grisel, for featuring my work in an interview published this month.
Two days of sittings in Midtown on 17 and 18 September, at Young Studio on 8th Avenue, followed by the New York masterclass on the Saturday. Actors, executives and commissioned portraits β one light, dark ground, as always.
On Friday 11 September 2026 I am opening the Downtown Los Angeles studio for a single day of thirty-minute headshot update sessions. Each one gives you two looks and one retouched image, and it is the only date this year I will offer them.
Last week The Wall Street Journal published Marc Myers' House Call interview with Jared Harris, and the portrait that opens the piece is one of mine.
The sitting took place at my London studio. Harris was filming at the time, and he set the production aside for a day so that he could sit. That is not a small thing. A filming day is an expensive, jealously guarded commodity, and an actor who gives one up for a portrait is telling you something about the seriousness with which he regards the record of his own face.
My portraits are held in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London, and in the Royal Collection. I have photographed Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Patrick Stewart and Dame Judi Dench, along with five British Prime Ministers, Tony Blair and Theresa May among them, and I am a four-time winner of Portrait of Britain. What I teach at Samy's is exactly what I practise in those sittings. Nothing is simplified and nothing is held back.
Last October β a full year before the book would reach the shelves β he came to my Farringdon studio to sit for the cover of Things I Took from the Dark: The Museum of Me, his illustrated memoir, published by Quercus on 8 October. For thirty years β from The League of Gentlemen through Psychoville to Inside No. 9, which brought him and Steve Pemberton a BAFTA for its final series β Shearsmith has been British television's most reliable custodian of the uncanny. The book explains why.
There is a particular pleasure in photographing an actor who has spent time in the eighteenth century. Tom Connolly leads the feature film Love, Courage and the Battle of Bushy Run as Colonel Henry Bouquet, the Swiss-born British Army officer whose victory at Bushy Run opened the road to the relief of Fort Pitt. The battle was fought, as it happens, in the first week of August, two hundred and sixty-three years ago this month.
π οΈ The Process
Consultation β define goals, type, and usage.
Wardrobe Guidance β plan tones & styles that flatter on camera.
Guided Session β expressive coaching to capture your range.
Proof Gallery β review & select favorites.
Professional Retouching β subtle polish, natural finish.
Delivery β ready-to-use files for Spotlight, Backstage, IMDb, and LinkedIn.
β Why Choose Rory Lewis in New York
International Reputation: portraits exhibited by the National Portrait Gallery (London).
Cinematic Lighting Mastery: inspired by Caravaggio and modern film stills.
Personalized Direction: relaxed sessions that build confidence and authenticity.
Industry Recognition: recommended by Spotlight & Backstage Casting.
Trusted by Leaders & Artists: from Hollywood to Wall Street.
π§Ύ FAQ
Do you photograph beginners?
Absolutely β Rory works with both seasoned performers and those new to professional photography.
Natural light or studio light?
Both β sessions often blend cinematic strobe with natural window light for depth and dimension.
What should I wear?
Bring solid colors, minimal patterns, and necklines that frame your face. Weβll refine the selection on set.
How long before I get my photos?
Final retouched images are delivered within 5 business days of selection.
π Book Your New York Headshot Session
To schedule or request rates, please include your desired dates and whether you need makeup services or corporate branding shots.
Email: AL@RORYLEWIS.STUDIO
Timeless headshots that open doors β crafted with cinematic precision in the heart of Manhattan.
I was delighted to be invited by B&H Photo to give a lecture at their New York home. In it I talked through some of the portraits that matter most to me. These include the ones people know best, and a few that hold a quieter place in the archive. The full talk is now on their YouTube channel, and you can watch it here.