Ray Dalio Portrait Sitting Bridgewater Associates

New York, 2022 | Portrait by Rory Lewis

Ray Dalio Portrait Sitting (Rory Lewis Photographer 2022)

In this portrait of Ray Dalio, photographed in New York in 2022, I set out to capture one of the most defining transitions in modern finance — the moment a master of markets chose to rethink his own long-held beliefs.

Dalio, the billionaire investor, philanthropist, and founder of Bridgewater Associates, has for decades shaped the language and logic of global investing. Like Adam Smith before him — the 18th-century Scottish economist whose Wealth of Nations defined the moral and structural foundation of capitalism — Dalio views economics not merely as numbers and trends, but as a reflection of human nature itself.

That philosophical kinship guided this portrait. Its Caravaggio-inspired chiaroscuro, classical pose, and sculptural tonality echo the engraved likenesses of Adam Smith: deliberate, reflective, and rooted in moral gravity. Yet the lighting and tone are unmistakably contemporary — the subdued green-gold palette reminiscent of the color of money — symbolizing wealth, wisdom, and introspection.

Ray Dalio Portrait Sitting (Rory Lewis Photographer 2022)

In October 2022, at a pivotal moment in his career, Ray Dalio stepped down as Co-Chief Investment Officer of Bridgewater Associates. On that very day, he took to Twitter (now X) to make a statement that reverberated across global markets. Quoting John Maynard Keynes, who once said, “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”, Dalio wrote:

“Along these lines, the facts have changed and I’ve changed my mind about cash as an asset: I no longer think cash is trash. At existing interest rates and with the Fed shrinking the balance sheet, it is now about neutral—neither a very good or very bad deal. In other words, the short-term interest rate is now about right.” — Ray Dalio, October 2022

It was a moment of intellectual candor rarely seen in modern finance — a public admission that even the world’s greatest investors must remain adaptable. In that instant, Dalio’s voice aligned with the timeless philosophy of Keynesian pragmatism and Smithian moral inquiry: the courage to question one’s own convictions in light of changing reality.

Bridging Centuries of Thought

The portrait embodies this evolution. It captures not the certainty of a man who mastered the markets, but the equilibrium of reflection — a face turned toward the light, neither triumphant nor defeated, but quietly balanced.
In composition and tone, Dalio stands as a modern Adam Smith, a philosopher of capital confronting the shifting forces of the 21st-century economy.

Through this image, I sought to preserve not only likeness, but legacy — the continuity of ideas that link three centuries of economic thought: Smith’s moral vision, Keynes’s pragmatism, and Dalio’s introspective realism.