More than a Headshot: Discovering the Art of Self-Expression through Portraiture
As part of the Captured Brilliance: Portraits of Women Shaping Success series I had the distinct privliage of photography Allecia Vermillion, Executive editor of Seattle Met Magazine. Allecia, renowned for her role as a food writer, weaves captivating stories that delve into the lives of the individuals behind their culinary endeavors. Reading Allecia's articles, one quickly discerns her penchant for spotlighting individuals and establishing connections between diverse elements. She is clearly a keen observer of people and their stories.
I consider myself an observer of people too. As a child, I hardly spoke and remember not understanding the point when I could gather all the pertinent information about a person by watching them. I speak to people now of course, but I still consider myself primarily as an observer. Being a watcher and working with another watcher was fascinating. Allecia observes and interviews to share other people’s stories. While we work with very different mediums our work is similar in many ways. We both facilitate the telling of other people's stories.
Allecia comes off a little reserved at first but it doesn’t take long for her dry wittiness to show. And while she was skeptical at first about what information she could offer that would translate into a compelling visual narrative what she was willing to do was trust the process.
There’s no set recipe for a narrative portrait but there is a process. My client brings the ingredients and together we follow the process to come up with a delicious new dish.
I try as much as possible to arrive at our initial meeting with no ideas. Even in cases where I know the person or know some things about them starting with a clean slate is essential for an authentic portrait. It’s not for me to dictate what parts of their story will make up the portrait. This process of self-actualization has to be client-led.
In the following interview, Allecia shares her thoughts on the process and the significance of visually capturing one's story.
Describe your experience of co-creating your narrative portrait.
When I sat down with Zoe, we talked about my work in a way that felt so different from other conversations I have with people about my job. We swiftly cut through the surface aspects and started discussing the elemental parts of it. I shared that my job is to reflect someone else’s story back out into the world. Zoe considered that a bit, and came up with the idea of wearing mirrors. She also promised I wouldn’t look like a disco ball. I looked through my closet to for potential dresses to wear. She zeroed in on one I’d nearly forgotten about, and added a crinoline to give it movement and be more appropriate for the photo we discussed.
Thinking about a setting was tricky. The actual office where I wrote isn’t terribly photogenic. Zoe and I brainstormed, I sent her photos from a few spots in my house, and she went out and scouted the cocktail bar that ended up being our shoot. Maybe the biggest surprise of this experience was Zoe’s ability to look at my life from a different vantage point and use that perspective to produce something that feels very true to who I am.
What aspects of your life or personality did you want to capture in your narrative portrait, and how did the collaborative process help bring that vision to life?
Zoe started our conversation by asking “how do you want to look in this portrait.” I had no idea how to answer that—I was just crossing my fingers for something flattering. Zoe’s really good at asking questions that move beyond the normal way we think about having our picture taken. It felt a little awkward to tell someone I just met that I consider myself witty, but acknowledging my strengths was a telling first step in a process that turned out to be very empowering.
How did the session itself make you feel? Were there any moments or details during the process that stood out to you?
The actual portrait session was intense! Zoe had a ton of different lights, even a spray to make the air look misty. She spent a lot of time adjusting lights to play off the mirrors on my dress. Photos involved a lot of twisting and turning that did not feel remotely comfortable. But it was clear that Zoe knew exactly what to do to create a result that looks natural and flattering, even if it felt strange in the moment. She also made the process feel relatively comfortable. I still think about some of her instructions when I’m taking casual snapshots with family or friends.
After receiving the final portrait, how did it make you feel, and how did it compare to your expectations or hopes when you started the process?
I’m a very awkward picture taker. I always envy people who fill their Instagram feeds with these casually beautiful images of themselves. I’m way too up in my head to be that person. Working with Zoe produced a portrait that’s so lovely, I can’t believe it’s real. When she sent me the proofs, I kept peeking at them on my phone in disbelief.
Is there anything else you would like to add about your narrative portrait photography experience?
As adults, we are so conditioned that paying for high-quality professional portraits is something we do to capture our kids, our wedding, a pregnancy…basically anything other than just us being our everyday empowered adult selves. Now that I’ve done this, I realize how special it is. I think about my kids having this image of me when I’m older, and of their kids seeing it someday and realizing grandma must have been an interesting person back in her day.
