What fashion work taught me about portraits

A decade of editorials, and the three habits from set that now shape every private session. Here is how it comes together, step by step.

Why it matters

Photographs outlive the moment they were taken. Treating each one with care is a small way of respecting the people in them and the time they gave to the session.

The habit behind the work

Photography is mostly patience. I spend far more time watching than pressing the shutter, waiting for light to settle, for a gesture to finish or for a street to empty for a second. That habit came from years on fashion sets, where one good frame can take an hour of quiet preparation.

Editing by hand

Each photograph is edited individually. I adjust colour, balance skin tones and remove distractions, but I never reshape faces or bodies. The aim is a picture that looks like the best version of the day, not a different person on a different day.

Gear matters less than you think

I work with two camera bodies and a small set of prime lenses. They are quiet, light and fast, which matters more than any specification. The less equipment there is, the less it gets between me and the people I photograph.

Direction, not poses

Instead of telling people how to stand, I give small prompts: walk towards me, tell each other a secret, look at the river and think about tomorrow. The body knows how to do those things naturally, and the photographs feel alive because of it.

This is a sample post used to preview the Journal layout.