Editorial Portraits of Nir Eyal at Stanford University

Below are 3 different set ups from 1 shoot. They are editorial portraits I photographed of Nir Eyal at Sanford University in Palo Alto, CA for the technology magazine EPiServer’s Engage Magazine (Sweden). Nir Eyal writes and lectures about the intersection of psychology, technology, and business. He encompasses user experience, behavioral economics, and neuroscience in his work. Nir will tell you why you buy certain things, and he critiques the sites we visit and our daily dependency on tech. I would have picked his brain, but I was a little busy setting up these options for the photo editors at the mag.

1) Conceptual. This is a composite of two images. I stitched together a very rough version at the location to see if it was worth the time and to get feedback from Nir on the concept. The high res version submitted to the magazine has pixels selectively painted onto the portrait inside the laptop screen to make parts of it look low fi when it is printed.

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2) Straight. At work/in action/in environment.

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3) Risk. Several options were covered that showed Nir clearly (not all posted here), so this version which doesn’t show his face was also sent to the magazine. His eyes are dark, but that’s not important. It builds mystery and gives the mag something to play with for page layouts. It reminds me of subjects seen through the back of a focusing screen on a 4×5 view camera except the image isn’t upside down and backwards. It would only need a few grid lines added in Photoshop to help that idea register.  – JW

Jay Watson

San Francisco Bay Area based lifestyle and people photographer Jay Watson shoots editorial, apparel, automotive, corporate, and sports subjects for commercial clients. Published in over 70 magazines.

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