Work, Journal
04.24.18
04.24.18
Dr. Jordan Peterson for Esquire
Woof, where to begin on this one. Doctor Jordan Peterson, photographed at the Marines’ Memorial Theatre in San Francisco for Esquire. Dr. Peterson is a polarizing figure: a professor at the University of Toronto, he writes on the intersection of neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and philosophy. He had been called the most influential public intellectual alive; his Youtube lectures have tens of millions of views. He is also a believer in the evolutionary nature of social hierarchies, refuses to recognize gender neutral pronouns/identities, and largely chalks up gender bias to evolutionary norms. This makes his work and teaching beyond unnerving for equal rights organizations, and myself.
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Peterson’s PR team permitted the shoot, then seemed to call it off, then ghosted, then green-lit the shoot with less than 24 hours notice. I knew a moderate amount about Peterson going into the shoot, as I find it’s helpful to arrive educated, but without complete bias towards a subject. After accepting an assignment, I don't believe my agenda should trump the publication that has hired me (I also mostly shoot people eating yogurt in sun-dappled orchards + seldom get commissioned to photograph polarizing figures). ⠀⠀⠀
We were given access to the jet-black backstage area of the theater, and 20 mins with Dr. Peterson. I looked around and immediately noticed there were no orchards or dry grassy fields for him to lay in, so I settled on some hard, crisp lighting that my assistant, Dane Pollock, and I could quickly move with. He had obviously been photographed enough to know his angles, so we expediently moved through the setups you see here.
A good friend saw these and rightly remarked that they look nothing like my work, which is quite true. The orchard references are half-jest, but there are many situations where your location, allotted time, budget, or **other** means you need to pull from your bag of editorial tricks. Or, you end up in a dark backstage dressing area with 20 minutes and you need to riff. For me, honeyed sunlight wouldn't be contextually appropriate to the image; lord knows I love it. That said, I’m still sorting out how work like this fits into a broader place in my portfolio, if I should be ok #slidinginto2018 in new visual styles, if I should show it once and leave it out to float away. Anyway, here are some photos.
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Peterson’s PR team permitted the shoot, then seemed to call it off, then ghosted, then green-lit the shoot with less than 24 hours notice. I knew a moderate amount about Peterson going into the shoot, as I find it’s helpful to arrive educated, but without complete bias towards a subject. After accepting an assignment, I don't believe my agenda should trump the publication that has hired me (I also mostly shoot people eating yogurt in sun-dappled orchards + seldom get commissioned to photograph polarizing figures). ⠀⠀⠀
We were given access to the jet-black backstage area of the theater, and 20 mins with Dr. Peterson. I looked around and immediately noticed there were no orchards or dry grassy fields for him to lay in, so I settled on some hard, crisp lighting that my assistant, Dane Pollock, and I could quickly move with. He had obviously been photographed enough to know his angles, so we expediently moved through the setups you see here.
A good friend saw these and rightly remarked that they look nothing like my work, which is quite true. The orchard references are half-jest, but there are many situations where your location, allotted time, budget, or **other** means you need to pull from your bag of editorial tricks. Or, you end up in a dark backstage dressing area with 20 minutes and you need to riff. For me, honeyed sunlight wouldn't be contextually appropriate to the image; lord knows I love it. That said, I’m still sorting out how work like this fits into a broader place in my portfolio, if I should be ok #slidinginto2018 in new visual styles, if I should show it once and leave it out to float away. Anyway, here are some photos.
