New Work, and a Few Doors Open in Los Angeles

There is a particular satisfaction in taking down a body of work you have looked at for too long and replacing it with something better. I have just done exactly that. The headshot portfolio has been rebuilt from the ground up — newer sittings, harder edits, a great deal that didn't make the cut. What's left is, I think, the strongest the studio has put out.

The temptation, when refreshing a portfolio, is to keep everything that was ever flattering. I've resisted it. A portfolio is not an archive; it is an argument. Every frame has to earn its place by saying something the frame beside it does not. The actors who sat for these will recognise their own faces; what they may not recognise is how little mercy went into choosing which version of them survived.

The approach hasn't changed, because it works. One light, treated with the seriousness the Old Masters gave it — Caravaggio understood that a face is mostly shadow, and that the small amount you choose to illuminate is the entire decision. Ribera knew it too. The job is not to flatter but to find the line where character lives and put a light on it. Everything else in the frame is in service of that.

Los Angeles, This Month

New Work, and a Few Doors Open in Los Angeles Actors Headshots with Rory Lewis Photographer

A practical note. A handful of sittings have opened at the Downtown LA studio over the coming weeks, and I'm holding preferred rates against them — not a sale, exactly, more a quiet reward for booking while the diary has gaps in it. Once the month fills, it returns to standard, and I make no apology for that.

For those who haven't sat before, the work is offered in three forms:

The Refresh — a single, decisive look. For the actor who knows precisely what they need and wants it done without ceremony. Fast, clean, ready to go out the same week.

The Professional — the working actor's set. Multiple looks, the full range of what a face can do, built for a roster that has to cover comedy, drama, and everything that lives between them.

The Commission — the considered sitting. For when the image is going to carry real weight, and the time spent in front of the camera should reflect that. This is closest to how I work on the fine art side.

If you have been meaning to update — and most people who think they have, have — this is the month to do it. The dates are finite and I won't pretend otherwise.

Enquiries to AL@RORYLEWIS.STUDIO, or reply to the email if that's how you found your way here.

— RL