Jonathan Petrides

Day 95 of Project Portrait. Next up we have the awesome Jonathan Petrides - a very old friend of mine and a serial entrepreneur who has worked all over the world. We used to spend our summers as poor teenagers trying to become table tennis masters - as you might have guessed, that hasn’t worked out. With this photo I had a concept I wanted to shoot that was dark and broody. But within spending five minutes with Jon, I realised that’s just not who he is and that just isn’t the person I see when we hang out. It was a pretty awesome lesson. I’ve been trying to learn new styles and ways of lighting people to become more technically proficient. But I’ve also learned that for me, it is far more important to depict someone in a way that feels relevant to them rather than trying to force a concept upon them. So what does this shot say about Jon? Well, he’s one of the friendliest people you’ll meet, has always tried to good things for good people professionally and is just an all-round great person to hang out with, even if it was just for an hour. So hopefully that comes across in this image.
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