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Steve Kanarian was at work on September 11, 2001. Since his job was as an EMT with the New York Fire Department, Steve’s view of the devastation was a bit more up-front and personal than for most other New Yorkers. Lieutenant Kanarian (ret.) lectures on EMS topics, terrorism response and does corporate keynote speeches. He’s also a writer.  His book, The Downwind Walk: A USAR Paramedic’s experiences on September 11, 2001 takes you to the front lines of 9/11 and delves into lessons learned from a quarter-century with the nation’s premier fire department.

Steve contacted me after getting referred to me by another client.  Once he saw my work, he wanted to move forward because he liked the gritty style of my environmental portraits and my familiarity shooting law enforcement, military and other paramilitary organizations.
In talking with Steve I determined he needed professional headshots, a portrait for his book and soome lifestyle images showing him training firefighters.   Since we couldn’t do it in NYC, we ended up shooting in Maine—first in our Portland studio, then in a few locations we set up and arranged beforehand.

Note:  most photographers I know have a running file of locations that they can tap for future shoots.  When Steve and I spoke, I knew I’d have to shoot in a narrow, grafitti-covered alleyway located in Portland’s Old Port.  We ended up shooting my favorite portrait of the day there. Steve was happy to do it, and commented that it was cleaner than the NYC equivalent: “It doesn’t smell like urine,” he remarked.  I think the simple portrait captures some of the drama and gravity of his job.

After a few hours of shooting, Steve and I had a great time and ended up with a handful of images that give him great flexibilty when building his brand.  Great job, Steve!