#portrait-photography

#portrait-photography

These images mark a series of firsts: my first time shooting on colour film, and my first collaboration with Ella Snyder. There was a certain electricity in that unfamiliarity, where every frame became a small act of trust, of quiet listening to light, shadow, and gesture. Shooting on film slowed us down, inviting presence and tenderness. These are more than portraits, they're records of a beginning, and of how art can emerge when two people meet the unknown together.

My aspirations have remained the same: to document the contemporary cultural landscape and to produce a decent photograph a photograph that acknowledges the medium's allegiance to reality and that preserves for myself and others a unique and honest sense of the subject. The environmental details have been kept to a minimum. The subjects have the frame to themselves and do not compete with context for attention. This provides for a simpler, blunter, more intense encounter with character. It is character that animates the image.

Since its launch in 1993, the Got Milk? campaign has become one of the most recognizable advertising initiatives in American history. Originally created by the advertising agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners, the campaign was designed to promote milk consumption in a way that was memorable, playful, and culturally resonant. The signature milk mustache portraits, shot by photographers including Annie Leibovitz, paired celebrities, athletes, and everyday people with a humorous, relatable visual motif: a glass of milk and a creamy white mustache.

At the center are two men: Eric Weiss, the photographer who captured the pulse of New York's cultural heyday, and Tomek Maćkowiak, a Bay Area craftsman dedicated to reviving the tools of film photography. Their collaboration is not just about nostalgia. It is a meditation on memory, patience and the tactile joy of film in a digital world, reminding us that slowing down can be the boldest act of all.