Portrait of Condoleezza Rice, American diplomat and political scientist. She served as the 19th U.S. national security advisor from 2001 to 2005 following which she served as the 66th United States secretary of state from 2005 to 2009. Condoleezza was the first female African-American secretary of state and the first woman to serve as national security advisor. Until the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008, Condoleezza and her predecessor, Colin Powell, were the highest-ranking African Americans in the history of the federal executive branch (by virtue of the secretary of state standing fourth in the presidential line of succession). At the time of her appointment as Secretary of State, Rice was the highest-ranking woman in the history of the United States to be in the presidential line of succession.
I was asked to take this portrait, in London, early on in my career and just a few years after Condoleezza had served her term as the secretary of state; it seems she and I left office and the military, respectively, at a similar time. It was odd, having recently left service, to meet and photograph someone who had undoubtedly shaped my military career.
I had been briefed where Condoleezza Rice would be staying in London and I had reached out to the hotel to organise a recce to look at the location booked for the session. I knew she was an accomplished musician, having studied to become a concert pianist at the age of 15 years old. I had hoped to take her portrait at a piano to juxtapose her public, political, perception against her other accomplishments. Despite explaining who I was and the reason for my call, the hotel, unsurprisingly, denied all knowledge of their upcoming guest. Thus the first time I saw the location was a few minutes before I was to take the portrait. The room booked for the shoot was the hotel library; narrow, long, with heavy wood and deep purple velvet sofas with a ceiling light which emitted an orange tint (who designs rooms this like and thinks it’s acceptable?). And no piano.
In light (please excuse the pun) of the location, I opted to seat Condoleezza in front of the window so she would be lit with natural light in an attempt to avoid the orange from the ceiling. Additionally I had an assistant off camera with a reflector to bounce light back on her, with the the room behind her to give the image depth. For the final edit, I went with B&W as… I’ll let you can guess why.
