Self-portrait study
After Platon.
Platon
His own self-portrait, with the Hasselblad. The one I stopped on.
Platon is one of my all-time favourite photographers. He’s the real deal. When PhotoED asked me in 2018 who was next on the list I said Avedon for sure, Platon, maybe even Laudermilk — and that I was working on the Platon right then.
The picture is his own self-portrait, holding his Hasselblad. I’m holding mine, with masking tape stuck on it to match the tape on his.
The light
A diffused shoot-through umbrella — the Elinchrom umbrella portrait kit. The lens was whatever was in the bag, a 24-70 at 24mm. I think Platon may shoot wider, but this looked pretty darn close to me.
The umbrella behind me
That was the hard part. The open umbrella behind him is as much the picture as the man is, and I could not find the right one. I rented several from Vistek and none of them were it. In the end I used an old one out of the studio and finished it in Photoshop. It took a long time, because I wanted to get it right.
And then I stopped
I was so happy with this one that I put the project down, and I haven’t picked it back up since. I thought, that’s a hard one to beat.