DAY 105

PORTRAITS

Use of Sunlight

ROBERTO CORTAZAR, PAINTER

As I turned up to the gallery, where I was commissioned to photograph Roberto Cortazar for a magazine, I had no idea that luck would shine on me again. The dimly lit gallery in an old Manhattan house was small and long, and, after arriving early to set up with my assistant, I simply did not know where to shoot. The space was tight, but there was one small painting with a huge frame that caught my eye. As always I had brought my strobe lights and was not too worried that this lack of light would present an issue.

Roberto arrived and we chatted briefly about some ideas. We shot some frames and they looked okay, but something was missing. I needed another dynamic element to bring it all together. Then the sun came flooding into the gallery, and cast a shadow of Roberto onto the wall and frame. He was actually looking down and waiting for me to decide what to shoot next, so I asked him to look into the lens, and I pressed the shutter, capturing his shadowed profile on the white frame. The balance of light and dark worked well, and thanks to my trusty light meter, I was able to recalculate the contrast range and exposure and make the shot. —SA