I return to New York this August. From Saturday 9 to Wednesday 13 August, my studio at 580 8th Avenue — twenty floors above the Garment District, a few minutes' walk from Times Square and the theatre houses — will be open for actor headshots, portrait sittings, and corporate headshots.
The approach
I light in the tradition of the Old Masters. A single source, controlled and directional, the way Caravaggio worked a room: light entering high from one side, falling across the brow and cheekbone, and everything else surrendered to shadow. Tenebrism, chiaroscuro — these are not stylistic affectations for me but the working grammar of the sitting. It is how a face is made to hold attention.
What that means in practice is that I am not making a photograph of what you look like. I am making a photograph of who you are when the room goes quiet. There is a moment, usually about twenty minutes in, when a sitter stops performing and simply is — that is the frame I am waiting for, and it is the reason I shoot slowly.
For actors
New York actors are among the most self-aware sitters I photograph, and that is a gift rather than an obstacle. You already understand stillness, eyeline, and the difference between an expression and an intention.
What I look for is range without gimmickry: a commercial frame that casting can read in half a second, a theatrical frame with weight and interiority, and — where the sitter wants it — something closer to a painted portrait than a headshot. Recent New York sittings have included Alex Wyndham, Babs Olusanmokun, Rosanny Zayas, Nick Pritchard, and Fedly Daniel.
