Rory Lewis Photographer Headshots & Portraiture

Across this series, I photograph actors and models adorned in the elegance of the 1930s, set against historically resonant backdrops. Each portrait becomes a temporal bridge — an echo of what might have been seen through the Chronovisoritself. Drawing influence from Frank Herbert, Caravaggio, David Lynch, Gustave Doré, and Ribera, I merge surrealism, chiaroscuro, and historical drama to craft scenes that feel both ancient and immediate, suspended between dream and memory.

Between 2014 and 2020, I had the immense privilege of photographing some of Los Angeles’ finest actors—artists whose work shaped my childhood in the 1980s and 90s, and whose performances continue to resonate across generations. Many of these remarkable individuals have since left us, which makes these sittings all the more meaningful.

Following the success of Soldiery (British Army Portraits), I sought to create a project equally powerful, human, and historically resonant. This pursuit led me to Soldati della Repubblica, a comprehensive portrait series documenting the modern Italian Army in the early 21st century.

Dopo il successo del progetto Soldiery (British Army Portraits), desideravo realizzare un’opera altrettanto intensa, umana e ricca di risonanza storica. Questa ricerca mi ha condotto a Soldati della Repubblica, una serie di ritratti che documenta l’Esercito Italiano all’inizio del XXI secolo.

Early in my career, like many photographers, I balanced a broad commercial workload — shooting everything from industrial products to aspiring actors — while yearning to focus on portraiture that was deeply human, expressive, and timeless. By my early thirties, I felt the urgency to define my artistic voice and create work that reflected who I truly was as a photographer. I knew that to attract the attention of editors, curators, and agents, I needed to produce a body of work entirely on my own terms — one that would both challenge and inspire.

A portrait photographer spends his working life reading faces that have been trained not to be read. Politicians are the hardest sitters of all. They arrive with a surface that has been built over decades and maintained daily, and the first ten minutes of any sitting are spent watching that surface hold. It is only when something interrupts the routine that anything else appears.

There are few individuals who carry the weight of cultural history, charisma, and enduring presence quite like William Shatner. Today, we celebrate not only his birthday, but a remarkable creative journey—one I’ve had the privilege of documenting since 2014.

I have had the honour of photographing Prince Michael of Kent on several occasions over the years. Portrait sittings such as these are precisely why I became a photographer—to capture not only a likeness, but a moment within history.

Trusted by Britain’s Greatest Acting Talent — Why Go Anywhere Else?

In a city as competitive as London, actors do not rise on luck alone. They rise on clarity, presence, and precision — and nowhere is that more evident than in the headshot that opens the casting door.

For much of my life, British comedy has been a formative influence—not simply as entertainment, but as a lens through which human behaviour, discomfort, and contradiction are examined. Few creative forces shaped that understanding more profoundly than The League of Gentlemen. Its world of grotesque beauty, psychological unease, and pitch-black humour revealed that comedy could be as atmospheric and unsettling as it was funny—an approach that continues to inform my portrait practice today.

Commissioned executive portrait photography in Los Angeles for CEOs, board members, investors, and institutional leaders. Authority-driven, cinematic power portraits created for governance, press, and legacy use worldwide.

While revisiting my archive, I recently rediscovered a series of group portraits made in Rome in September 2018—photographs of the Reggimento Corazzieri, the elite cuirassiers of Italy and the ceremonial honour guard of the President of the Italian Republic.

Few military specialists operate with greater restraint—or greater consequence—than the sniper. Trained to observe without detection, to wait without movement, and to act with absolute precision, snipers exist on the margins of visibility. Their presence is rarely acknowledged, yet their influence is profound.

Political portraiture is uniquely challenging. Unlike actors or artists who often arrive ready to reveal themselves, political figures carry the weight of office, legacy, and scrutiny. Their public image is choreographed, their private selves carefully protected. To photograph them is to navigate a space where power, perception, and personality intersect, requiring not only technical mastery but also an ability to draw out the humanity beneath the role. Over the years, I have worked with some of the most influential figures in modern public life—Tony Blair, John Major, Theresa May, David Cameron, and more recently Usha Vance, the Second Lady of the United States. Each sitting has presented its own complexities and quiet revelations.

Il progetto Soldati della Repubblica, realizzato attraverso la Rory Lewis Non Profit, mi ha portato in viaggio attraverso l’Italia per ritrarre alcuni dei più storici e prestigiosi reggimenti di cavalleria: Nizza Cavalleria (1°), Lancieri di Novara (5°), Lancieri di Aosta (6°), Lancieri di Montebello (8°) e il Reggimento Corazzieri, guardia d’onore del Presidente della Repubblica.

The year 2025 marks a defining milestone in my career as a portraitist and in the mission of the Rory Lewis Non-Profit: the capture of four living British Field Marshals—an achievement unparalleled in contemporary photographic history. This body of work joins the organization’s latest acquisition, the Presentation Portrait of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig(1928), symbolically uniting the early twentieth-century imagery of command with its living successors nearly a century later.

In The Color of Money, Rory Lewis reimagines Ray Dalio as a modern-day Adam Smith — a philosopher of finance rendered in the tonal language of U.S. currency. The portrait’s subdued greenish hue evokes the moral and material weight of money, while its Caravaggio-inspired lighting captures Dalio suspended between shadow and illumination — intellect and introspection. Symbolizing a new era of economic thought, the image reflects Dalio’s 2022 reversal, “I no longer think cash is trash,” portraying him not merely as an investor, but as a thinker reshaping capitalism’s conscience. Blending fine art with corporate gravitas, the work positions Lewis at the intersection of aesthetic mastery and financial portraiture for the Fortune 500 age.

Rory Lewis Non-Profit presents a visual thesis uniting portraits of the last three Commanders of the Household Division — Lieutenant General Sir Ben Bathurst, Major General Sir Chris Ghika, and Major General James Bowder — each photographed at the historic Duke of Wellington’s desk inside Horse Guards, London.

What an incredible moment for one of Britain’s finest actors. Stephen Graham has been named Outstanding Lead Actorat the Emmy Awards for his unforgettable performance in Netflix’s Adolescence.

I was commissioned by The Free Press to photograph Usha Vance, the Second Lady of the United States. The session took place at her residence on Observatory Hill—a quiet morning where pale spring light slipped through bare branches and drifted softly across cream silk and wide-leg tailoring. The atmosphere carried both intimacy and a quiet sense of national importance.

I am honored that my portrait of Maye Musk has been featured on the cover of Good Light Magazine. The session, titled A Timeless Portrait, was conceived as a modern interpretation of classical portraiture—combining restrained elegance, dramatic light, and psychological depth.

This picture has actually lost me a few jobs. Plus I think I might even have lost a flat because of it. I was looking at a property and was chatting to the estate agent and told them that I’d recently shot David Cameron. We put an offer in – for the asking price – but it was turned down. So yes, I do suspect people don’t like David Cameron.

Thank you to BBC Corespondent Chris Long interviewing me about my Northerners Photography Exhibition. Speaking in particular about my sittings with Sir Patrick Stewart, Sir Ian McKellen, full transcript below.

I am honoured to share that my portrait of Field Marshal The Lord Houghton of Richmond, GCB, CBE, DL, has been accepted into the Royal Collection — one of thirteen works from my non-profit archive now preserved within it, and among the most recent.

It is with great pride that I share that three further portraits of His Royal Highness The Duke of Kent — photographed in Royal Air Force uniform — have been accepted into the Royal Collection. They join the Field Marshal portraits as part of a body of thirteen works from my non-profit archive now preserved within that collection.

I am honoured to share that my portrait of Field Marshal The Lord Richards of Herstmonceux, GCB, CBE, DSO, DL, has been accepted into the Royal Collection, completing the thirteen works from my non-profit archive now held within that institution.

It is a moment of real significance for my non-profit archive that my portrait of Field Marshal The Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank has been accepted into the Royal Collection, among thirteen works from the archive now held within that institution. This was the first portrait of a British Field Marshal I ever made, and to see it enter the Royal Collection feels like the completion of a circle.

We are five months into 2026, and I can count the Heroes in Focus sittings I've done this year on one hand. That has to change — and soon, because the pace the archive needs is not the pace it is currently moving at. I want to be straight about that, because the work matters too much for me to dress it up.

Portraiture, at its best, does more than record a likeness—it preserves leadership, responsibility, and history. In this portrait of General Sir James Everard, recently featured in The Telegraph, the aim was to convey not only authority, but the gravity of command carried by one of Britain’s most experienced senior officers.

It was a wonderful surprise to see my portraits of the late, great David Warner appear twice in the newly released Tron: Ares — once as a framed painting within a pivotal office scene, and again as part of an onscreen newscast montage. To witness Warner resurrected, recognised, and woven into the visual language of the film was deeply moving.

Trooper Collins is one of the first women to serve in the prestigious Household Cavalry, a regiment renowned for its rich history and traditionally male ranks. Her inclusion represents a milestone in the evolution of this distinguished unit. Captured as part of Rory Lewis’s celebrated project, Soldiery: British Army Portraits, this compelling image highlights the changing face of the British Armed Forces.

A portrait by Rory Lewis of Black Rod Sarah Clarke OBE has been shortlisted for Portrait of Britain 2022, presented by the British Journal of Photography.

We’re delighted to share that a portrait of acclaimed actor David Warner — known for his roles in Titanic, Time Bandits, and The Omen — captured by Rory Lewis Photographer, has been officially acquired by the National Portrait Gallery, London. Remarkably, this sitting marked David’s first portrait session since being photographed by Cecil Beaton in 1966.