Inside the Portrait: A Lighting and Direction Lecture with Rory Lewis

A lecture and open Q&A with British portrait photographer Rory Lewis. Based in Los Angeles with studios in New York and London, Lewis has spent two decades building one of the most distinctive bodies of portrait work in contemporary photography - cinematic, Caravaggio-inspired, and rooted as much in his early training as a medieval historian at King's College London as in the camera itself. His sitters have ranged from Sir Patrick Stewart, Sir Ian McKellen, David Warner and Rufus Sewell to former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Theresa May, HRH The Duke of Kent, and successive Chiefs of the General Staff of the British Army. Portraits by Lewis are held in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London and in the Royal Collection, and through his Heroes in Focus non-profit he has photographed the living Field Marshals, VC & GC recipients, and hundreds of British soldiers for the Soldiery archive.
In this session he opens two decades of work: the sittings that shaped his career, the frames he'd defend and the ones he learned from, and the painters - Holbein, Caravaggio, Titian, Rembrandt, Lawrence - whose light still runs beneath every portrait he makes. Expect stories from rooms with five-minute clocks, honest breakdowns of how the most-recognised images were built, and the working philosophy of a photographer who treats the studio as a direct descendant of the easel.
The final portion of the afternoon is given over entirely to your questions. Bring a notebook.