Brief
To take the professional portrait of Clothilde Redfern, the director of the Rory Peck Trust. The Trust was set up in 1995 after the death of Rory Peck, an independent camera operator, who died while working in Moscow in 1993. Initially founded to support other freelance camera operators, the Trust has since grown into an international organisation that supports all freelance newsgatherers.
Situation
Clothilde and I had been liaising for some time to find a suitable gap in her schedule. Given the nature of work the Trust is involved in, it was important to stay flexible due to recent events such as the fall of Afghanistan in August 2021. Clothilde Redfern had been using a selfie as her profile portrait however with a formal Trust event taking place soon she wanted a professional image in the event program.
Portrait
It became clear, half way through the portrait session, that Clothilde does not like having her portrait taken. In such an instance there is no utility in pushing a person any further than they are comfortable and keeping them any longer than necessary in front of the camera. In order to keep any possible tension as low as possible I chose to break the session up with regular tea and coffee breaks and to keep Clothilde’s time in front of the camera as focused and directed as possible. With time in front of the camera being limited, every frame had extra importance.
Conclusion
My standard portrait session offer is five final images, to be edited in either colour or black and white depending on what the client wants. In this instance Clothilde decided on just two frames, one with hair up and the other with her hair down, her rationale being she would not use five images of varying similarity.
