12 Angry Men - Character Portraits

When I joined the cast of our community theater's production of "12 Angry Men" in June 2019, I was also honored to serve as the show's official photographer, which meant I got to produce the actor headshots for use in the playbill and marketing campaigns. For years, photographers for previous shows have chosen the traditional, "shiny happy actor" approach to these headshots. Given this show's intensity and drama, though, I felt this series needed a different approach, so I took a risk and photographed each actor in character and in full costume. To capture each juror's unique personality, I asked each actor to sit at the table and look at me as if I was the defendant on trial. Aside from slight adjustments to the position of a hand or tilt of a head, each image captures what the actor instinctually came up with as soon as he sat down. Why do these portraits matter to me? Because as soon as this show was added to the theater's schedule in late 2018, I saw this series in my head but didn't know how to produce it. I spent the next 8 months studying and practicing setups, post-production toning, and various lighting techniques. It was a maddening, frustrating, and exhilarating process that I wouldn't change for the world. These images aren't perfect. Neither are the jurors they represent, or the actors who play them. I love all of them, though. I hope you will, too.