When I first met Avner, he was returning from his Aikido dojo in Portland.  We chatted about our upcoming photoshoot and his career and travel.   Here is a person who has performed so many times, before so many audiences, that therein lies a challenge for me as a photographer.   As with any subject, it’s necessary to break through the wall of formality between photographer and subject.   Every person presents a certain kind of mask to the world, and it’s when this masks drops—even slightly, sometimes for just an instant—that there’s an opportunity for an authentic, real and interesting photograph.

Our location was the Maine State Ballet Company—I could say it’s because of Avner’s deep connection to performance in all its forms, but really, it’s because it’s the only place I could find near Portland with a red velvet curtain that I knew would look great in the final image.     Once Avner was on location and in character, with trademark bowler hat, my job was just to make him feel comfortable and let him do his thing.

The only issue is, Avner is a professional and experienced performer.   Slipping into character is second nature.  The trick wouldn’t be getting interesting shots of him emoting and in character.  Instead, it would be to get him in an unguarded, real moment.  Although I got a great number of quality, fun images of Avner, most look like typical promotional images used to promote an upcoming show rather than an editorial image conveying a feeling about Avner as a person.   In the end I came down to a couple of images, including one of Avner leaning down on his traveling trunks, his face serious and lined.   I went with the image we used for Inspire Portland because it captured a light and somewhat enigmatic expression, conveyed a strong theatrical sense, and was totally unscripted.  In fact, it was during a moment when I was adjusting the lights and Avner was just talking and interacting with me and my assistant, Charlie.   To me, Avner looks comfortable and in his element, an accomplished pro who has spent a lifetime in the theater but who still has the capacity to have fun.

Check out some of the outtakes in the show below (it’s a Flash gallery, so iProduct users will need a a computer to view the outtakes). I love the one of him with his hat perfectly perched in the air above his head.   Only took Avner a handful of tries to nail that one.

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My plan was to photograph Eliot Cutler—yes, that Eliot Cutler, the lawyer and businessman who almost became Maine’s governor in 2010—outside on an overcast, gloomy day in December.   I wanted it to be cold.  In fact, the colder the better.  I wanted a strong visual that captured the sense of a man, standing alone against the elements and the gathering storm.   For me, it was the perfect visual metaphor for a man who accepted defeat with class and then went on to found a political organization, OneMaine, dedicated to political reform here in Maine and beyond.

That was the plan, anyway.  Cutler was game and the stark location on Portland’s waterfront would work well.   After one cancellation (due to an actual storm, with strobe light-ruining rain), we rescheduled in December.  The weather turned out to be cold, but not bitterly so—as I’d hoped—but it was sufficiently overcast.  At least it was until Cutler actually stood in front of the camera.  That’s when the clouds slid away from the sun and the somber mood turned a few shades lighter.

So I shot the portrait I’d planned, and then decided to turn the sun’s appearance to my advantage.  Combined with a tough, somewhat enigmatic expression from Cutler, the backlit portrait quickly became my favorite.   I briefly stepped back to grab a scener, complete with assistant Charlie Widdis, my fully-functioning human-powered light boom.   Easy, simple, and all due to a great subject with a bit of seat-of-the-pantsery.  As Charlie says, it’s our standard M.O.   Check out the story on Inspire Portland.