Portraiture Under Pressure
Updated: Aug 24
Cannes Film Festival x Deadline Hollywood
Photography & Creative Direction — Cannes, France, 2025
Client Deadline Hollywood
Role Photographer, Creative Direction & Production
Talent Actors, directors, filmmakers and industry figures including John Travolta, Cara Delevingne, Andy Garcia, David Oyelowo, Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo, Akuol de Mabior, Judith Godrèche, Édouard Philipponnat, Jordan Firstman and many more.
The Commission
Cannes is one of those assignments where everything is moving. Schedules, locations change. A shoot planned for the studio can be followed immediately by a junket at a hotel or a beachfront club. And sometimes you have just 10 minutes to make the photograph.
For Cannes Film Festival 2025, I spent 10 days photographing approximately 40 films for Deadline Hollywood. My role extended beyond photography. I was responsible for the creative direction, lighting, composition and overall visual approach, while also communicating and negotiating with multiple agencies, suppliers, publicists and talent teams throughout the festival.
The challenge was to create portraits that felt considered and distinctive within an environment where very little stays still.
The Challenge
On average, I had around 10–15 minutes per film. Importantly, that didn't necessarily mean one person.
A film could arrive with a cast of six, and within that same window I needed to create the full group portrait, individual portraits and different pairings. There was no time to slowly discover the photograph. I needed to know what I wanted while remaining open to what was happening in front of me. On a particularly busy day, I could photograph around 10 films, moving between my studio and junkets in hotels, clubs and locations along the Cannes beachfront. The objective remained the same regardless of the circumstances: Make something that doesn't feel rushed, even when it is.
Creating a Visual Language for Cannes
My studio overlooked the Mediterranean. I wanted the location to be visible in the work. Photographing on the balcony immediately tells you something about where these portraits were made. Inside, I installed a blue backdrop that created a visual continuation of the exterior photographs. The two environments weren't intended to be identical. I wanted them to belong together. Together, they created the visual language for the series.
Working With the Cannes Light
Photographing on the balcony meant shooting into extremely bright daylight while retaining the sea and environment behind the sitter. To balance that intensity, I used two Profoto B3X lights at high power.
Inside, the studio was small, with white walls and with significant natural light. Those walls created considerable bounce, so rather than adding more light, I worked primarily with a single source. I like contrast in my portraits. Shadow creates shape across a face and body, and I didn't want the abundance of reflected light to flatten the sitter. The lighting needed to connect with what I was creating outside without replicating it. The result was two approaches that could sit naturally alongside one another while retaining the contrast and sculptural quality that runs through my portraiture.
Group portraiture in 5 Minutes
When a cast enters the studio, I am immediately looking at colour, wardrobe and visual balance, but I am also considering their roles within the film.
Who are the leads? Who naturally gravitates towards whom? Who is comfortable together? Can they touch? How do gender and cultural considerations affect the way I position people?
Not everyone gets along. Not everyone is comfortable with physical contact. Relationships between people are different, and cultural context matters. Experience has taught me to recognise these things quickly. The photograph has to work compositionally, but the people inside it also have to feel comfortable being there.
When Something Goes Wrong
High-pressure photography also means knowing how to respond when things don't go according to plan.
During Cannes I became extremely unwell with hay fever. For several days I felt exhausted, but the moment talent arrived, i resurrected. During one shoot, I made a mistake. I had forgotten to return the memory card to my camera. I was photographing Jordana and was completely engaged with her and her team. The shoot was going brilliantly. The energy in the room was fire. Then, towards the end, I realised what had happened. There wasn't time to panic, I stayed calm, while i was thinking what next. I informed everyone that I needed to change the card. I changed the card, continued working and spoke to the publicist about having a little more time to make sure we had everything we needed. Because we had already established a positive relationship, there was no disruption to the atmosphere of the shoot. We repeated what we needed, kept going and finished with the same energy with which we had started.
The photographs were delivered. The client was happy. Jordana shared them, her team shared them, and what could have become a disaster simply became a problem that needed solving.
What matters professionally is what you do next.
The Result
I love the unpredictability of portrait photography in Cannes. I love having to walk into a space, understand the light, understand the person in front of me and make decisions quickly.
I love that a portrait can begin with two people who have never met and, within minutes, become a collaboration.
Cannes demands technical knowledge, speed and stamina, but most importantly it demands communication. You are constantly moving between talent, publicists, glam teams, editors, agencies, suppliers, assistants and clients. Being able to communicate clearly with all of them while remaining calm under pressure is part of making the photograph possible.
Give me the person, the location and the time we have.
I'll find the portrait.
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