Commission — 001
Portrait
Held
Client
Verso Quarterly
Category
Portrait
Year
2025
16×20 Fujiflex · C-type · edition of twelve
Held Breath — forty minutes for a frame that took a quarter of a second
The photograph — 002
The frame that ran
16×20 Fujiflex · C-type · edition of twelve
The brief — 003
Verso Quarterly
A single portrait for a long interview. Forty minutes booked, one frame needed. The subject had done eleven of these in a fortnight and arrived ready to be photographed, which is the hardest thing to work with.
Frames — as shot
Frames as shot
Frame 24 · the wall, four minutes before she sat down
The approach — 004
How it was made
We spent the first half hour not photographing. North light through one window, a plain wall, no reflector. When somebody has been posed eleven times the only thing left to do is wait for the pose to fail.
It failed at minute thirty-six. The exposure is a quarter of a second at f/2 and there is movement in it, which the magazine queried and then ran.
The outcome — 005
2025
One frame ran full page. Two prints exist: one for the subject, one in the drawer.
Forty minutes for a frame that took a quarter of a second is the correct ratio and it is not negotiable downward.
The print — 006
Editions close at twelve
Specification
16×20 Fujiflex · C-type · edition of twelve
Process
Chromogenic C-type, RA-4, printed wet
Turnaround
Ten to twelve weeks from the last exposure
Signed
On the verso, numbered, with the negative reference
Next — 007
All six commissions
