The Two-Minute Portrait with former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Two-Minute Portrait with former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. For Bloomberg.
No studio. No time for bringing in a backdrop or lights. Location is at a busy conference. And the person you have to photograph can only stop briefly in-between appointments. This calls for help working with the handler or communication staff. Together we scouted some locations and agreed to what is possible. Usually this means a lot of Nopes from the handler and finally something we can agree on. Key here is to find something we can all be happy with - or close to it.
Once the location is chosen the security team vetted the spot and we waited for the PM. Which gives me time to talk to the comms person so they get a sense of what I’m trying to do. If they trust me they will send that up the ladder.
From the first frame to the last one the timestamp on the photos show an elapsed time of 1-minute and 37 seconds. As other photographers know sometimes you get the time you get and you have to make the most of that time.
So how do you create an image that is somewhat useable and hopefully compelling? Well I don’t know if I succeeded but I tried my best to get more than the usual smiling politician. Smiling faces are great sometimes but only when the moment calls for it. Like seriously why would anyone smile while talking to me. Ha.
We had a short but nice chat while I was photographing him. We spoke about some Ottawa photojournalists we both knew. And some politicians that I went to school with at the UofA. We moved around a bit. I made some suggestions and he agreed to some but not all. I find that people who have been in front of the camera this much knows what works for them. And isn’t afraid to turn down ideas that don’t suit their image. So I try to push gently and work together to find an image that we might both be good with. Thanks to Adam Scotti for sending the photo of me working.