Inside Florida House // INFLUENCE Magazine
Inside Florida House// INFLUENCE Magazine
NFLUENCE Magazine assigned us to photograph the Florida House for a feature in their Fall 2025 issue. The story, written by Brendan Farrington, profiled the only state embassy in the nation, and our assignment took us to the 19th century Victorian townhouse in Washington, D.C., located just behind the U.S. Supreme Court.
Photographing a historic building for a magazine feature requires a different approach than a standard portrait session. The Florida House is both a working venue and a piece of Florida history, and the images needed to capture photographs of both the architecture and the people who make the space what it is. That means balancing interior photography of the rooms, the art, and the furnishings with environmental portraits of the staff and the atmosphere of the building in use.
The Florida House is a Victorian townhouse, which means the rooms are smaller and more detailed than a modern office or event space. As a Washington D.C. photographer on editorial assignments, you learn quickly that historic interiors have their own set of challenges. The rooms have character, but they also have low ceilings, mixed light sources, narrow doorways, and decorative elements that can compete with your subject if you're not careful about framing. We worked with our Canon mirrorless system and selected lenses that let us photograph the tighter interior spaces without distortion while still capturing images of the wider views and architectural details that give the building its identity.
For the portrait work with Director Robert Weissert, we used Profoto lighting to supplement the available light among the shadows from the trees. For indoor and outdoor images of the space, we used natural lighting and available lighting inside the space. Historic spaces often have beautiful natural light, but it can be inconsistent from room to room depending on window placement and the time of day. Because of that, we had to be flexible to work in any part of the building and maintain consistent quality across the full set of images.
One of the details that makes this location special from a photography standpoint is its proximity to the U.S. Capitol. The west-facing view toward the Capitol dome and the Washington Monument is a distinctive feature of the building, and incorporating that into the photography adds a sense of place that connects the Florida House to the broader D.C. landscape.
D.C. editorial photography is a growing part of our work as Florida photographers. We are based in Tallahassee, and the connection between Florida's capital and the nation's capital runs through so much of what we do for publications like INFLUENCE Magazine. The Workmans bring the same preparation and approach to every D.C. assignment that we bring to our work in Tallahassee.
This feature was photographed by The Workmans for INFLUENCE Magazine and appeared in the Fall 2025 issue and was written by Brendan Farrington. The Workmans are a husband-and-wife photography team based in Tallahassee, Florida, and we work with publications across the state of Florida, in Washington D.C. and around the United States. You can explore more of our editorial photography in the archive, see more of our work across our website and connect with us on how we can best serve you!
