Presence isn’t charisma. It’s the part of someone that stays when they stop performing. Black and white helps me get there. Not as nostalgia. As discipline.
A corporate portrait lives or dies on that difference. You can dress it up with polish, perfect posture, and the safe expressions people borrow for boardrooms but none of that holds if the subject doesn’t arrive. This subject isn’t interested in corporate normal.
When I photographed Brad Jacobs, I wasn’t just chasing the usual executive mask. I wanted the edge of the person behind the persona, the quick intelligence, the impatience with ceremony, the split-second of spontaneity that doesn’t ask permission.
The room settles. The gaze locks. The performance drops. That’s presence.
Monochrome removes the easy seduction of color and leaves only structure: light and shadow, tonal range, bone, skin, breath. It makes the frame more honest. It asks for restraint. It exposes anything manufactured.
My film-era foundation still governs how I work. When decisions had consequence, you learned to wait. You learned to read micro-shifts in posture. The smallest change in the mouth. The exact second the eyes stop “posing” and start simply being.
This portrait lives in that exact second. Edgy. Direct. Unpolished in the right way. A still that holds personality, not polish.
Because the best portraits don’t sell success. They reveal authority without the costume. They show someone who doesn’t need to announce anything—someone who can be seen without being simplified.
Presence is the art of being seen. Not louder. Clearer.
Work with David
If you’re a creative director, a marketing lead, a brand builder, an interior designer or a collector looking for work with authorship, consider this your invitation to start the conversation.
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