Behind the Portraits: A Conversation on Two Decades of Portraiture

Behind the Portraits: A Conversation on Two Decades of Portraiture

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.

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Sir Patrick Stewart (1940–2026)

Sir Patrick Stewart (1940–2026)

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.

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If I Can Photograph a King, I Can Photograph Your Founder

If I Can Photograph a King, I Can Photograph Your Founder

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.

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Cinematic Portraiture in the Old Master Tradition two-hour live masterclass on Zoom

Cinematic Portraiture in the Old Master Tradition two-hour live masterclass on Zoom

Cinematic Portraiture in the Old Master Tradition

Light is the story

On Sunday 1 November, I’m teaching a two-hour live masterclass on Zoom: Cinematic Portraiture in the Old Master Tradition.

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Between Sessions: Why My Tuition Clients Now Have a Private Community

Between Sessions: Why My Tuition Clients Now Have a Private Community

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.

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Stephen Graham: The Quiet Menace Arrives on Apple TV

Stephen Graham: The Quiet Menace Arrives on Apple TV

Graham’s 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

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Returning to London: Award-Winning Actor Headshots (11–24 November)

Returning to London: Award-Winning Actor Headshots (11–24 November)

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.

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Thirty-Minute Update Headshots — London, One Day Only (Thursday 12 November)

Thirty-Minute Update Headshots — London, One Day Only (Thursday 12 November)

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.

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New York Actors’ Headshots: Four Days in Midtown, 5–8 November 2026

New York Actors’ Headshots: Four Days in Midtown, 5–8 November 2026

In August I wrote that September could well be my last New York dates of the year. It wasn’t. Four more days have opened in early November, Thursday the 5th to Sunday the 8th, and I’m 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.

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Chauncey Alan: A Lean and Hungry Look

Chauncey Alan: A Lean and Hungry Look

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: “Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; / He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.”

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London, 16–26 November: Headshots, Portraits, Military and Royal Commissions, and One-to-One Tuition

London, 16–26 November: Headshots, Portraits, Military and Royal Commissions, and One-to-One Tuition

From Monday 16 to Thursday 26 November I’ll 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.

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Devin McElvogue: A Headshot in Copper and Grey

Devin McElvogue: A Headshot in Copper and Grey

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 sitter’s 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.

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Los Angeles Model Headshots: Christian Bell – The Two-Tone Statement

Los Angeles Model Headshots: Christian Bell – The Two-Tone Statement

Christian Bell stepped into the Downtown Los Angeles studio carrying a look that immediately commands attention. The striking two-tone afro — rich dark curls giving way to a crown of silver-white — became the defining feature of the session, but it was the face beneath it that made the images sing.

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Los Angeles Actor Headshots: Travis Quentin Young – Louisiana Roots, LA Range

Los Angeles Actor Headshots: Travis Quentin Young – Louisiana Roots, LA Range

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.

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Los Angeles Actor Headshots: Billy Hirsch – Brooklyn Bite Meets West Coast Cool

Los Angeles Actor Headshots: Billy Hirsch – Brooklyn Bite Meets West Coast Cool

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 — a combination that makes him instantly compelling on camera.

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London's Finest Actors' Headshot Photographer — Four Sittings, and a Word About November

London's Finest Actors' Headshot Photographer — Four Sittings, and a Word About November

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 — 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.

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Clancy Brown at the Table

Clancy Brown at the Table

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.

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Two Leaders, One Week: Portraits from the United Nations

Two Leaders, One Week: Portraits from the United Nations

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.

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One-to-One Portrait Photography Tuition in New York

One-to-One Portrait Photography Tuition in New York

Private, intensive photography tuition led by Rory Lewis — an award-winning portraitist recognised by the National Portrait Gallery, Portrait of Britain, and Hasselblad Masters.

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