When it comes to portrait photography, I try to tailor each photo to the subject and the story being told. For the May 2024 issue of Arizona Highways, I was assigned to photograph Anna Dornhaus, a University of Arizona professor who studies ants and their social behaviors — and finding the right approach was a challenging but worthwhile effort.
I always interview my subjects before I plan the shoot, because it helps me get to know them and gives me ideas. When I interviewed Anna, she mentioned that when she’d been photographed in the past, it was hard to see the subjects of her research, given that ants are very small. After our conversation, I started thinking about how to solve that problem, but I hit a few dead ends: The UA had an ant display that wasn’t visually interesting, and the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson had removed its own exhibit of oversized insect sculptures a few months earlier. I considered photographing Anna in front of a chalkboard with ants drawn on it, but I’d seen similar photos before and wanted to do something new.
Finally, with my deadline looming, I discovered Tucson’s Brandi Fenton Memorial Park, which features several 6-foot ant sculptures atop a picnic ramada. After some Googling and phone calls, I got in touch with the sculptor, who still had two other ants and offered to loan me one. I put that sculpture in my studio and stared at it for a couple of days until I had enough direction to bring Anna in for a shoot.
As with most portrait sessions, there was a lot of trial and error, but one of my approaches was to use projection strobes to silhouette the ant on the wall behind Anna. We moved the ant several times until we found the right balance between Anna and the silhouette. The photo Arizona Highways chose (above) was my favorite from the shoot — I love old science-fiction films, and the circle of light and the bend of the ant’s legs gave it a very sci-fi quality. Additionally, the tools Anna is holding give a sense of the real-life scale of these insects.
Given the reality of deadlines, it isn’t always possible to go on such an in-depth journey to find a counterintuitive approach to a portrait, but I’m thrilled with how this one turned out.