Opposite page: Two musician portraits, two techniques.
Top: At home with Bruce Springsteen, photographed
by window light. Bottom: Keith Richards, lit by a Kino Flo,
surrounded by records Clinch supplied. This page: Executive
Jimmy Dunne’s personality transformed “a tough office
shoot,” Stroh says.
music, required the photographer to bring props to
the recording studio where the shoot took place. “I
decided to bring a chair and my record player, and put
some old records around the room.” He adds, “This
is about as contrived as I get” on a shoot. He says
Richards was “thrilled” to pore over albums by Fred
McDowell, Little Walter and other great blues musi-
cians. “Most [photographers] just put him against
the wall and ask him to light a cigarette.”
He set up a Kino Flo to the left of the camera. After
getting some photos of Richards laughing and listen-
ing to records, Clinch said he wanted a straight por-
trait. Richards adopted his trademark scowl. “He got
into this pose. He’s such a natural.”
Mackenzie Stroh: Exploring Personality
Mack EnziE Stroh EnjoyS the challenge of walking into a location blindly and quickly coming up
with a way to make the space look interesting. “In a studio, there are so many things you can do, but I
love going on location.” She particularly enjoys lighting an environment in what she calls a “sculptural”
way, either to highlight a great space or to diminish its flaws by lighting her subject in a more dramatic or
interesting way.
For a story published in Fortune on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, Stroh photographed executive Jimmy
Dunne of Sandler O’Neill + Partners, an investment bank that has thrived in the decade since 66 of its 83
employees died in the World Trade Center attacks. Stroh knew what the challenge would be: “A tough of-
fice shoot, which is typical. It was a trading floor, and an office with wood paneling.”
Stroh notes, “One thing I remind myself is: It’s not an architectural shoot. It’s about the person. As long
as the person is interesting in the shot, it works, and lighting can help with that.”
For her photo of Dunne seated at a trading desk, she set up a beauty dish with a grid and diffuser above
and to the right of the camera as her key light. She also placed a softbox with a grid on the floor as a fill on
Dunne, and bounced a head at the ceiling to provide slight fill for the background.
What made the portrait work, she says, was Dunne’s personality. “He’s the type whose personality just
jumps out at you. The icing on the cake was that he was so engaged and interesting.”
When photographing someone who isn’t used to being in front of the camera, she usually gives specific
directions. “I tend to tell people what to do with their eyes or their mouth so they don’t feel so lost in front
of the camera,” she says. “With a CEO who is used to being photographed by a corporate photographer,
