What I've Learned: Rick Flagg // INFLUENCE Magazine
What I've Learned: Rick Flagg // INFLUENCE Magazine
INFLUENCE Magazine assigned us to photograph veteran Florida Capitol reporter Rick Flagg for their "What I've Learned" feature in the Fall 2021 issue. The story, written by Rosanne Dunkelberger, was a career-spanning interview, and the portrait session took place at our Garage studio in Tallahassee.
The "What I've Learned" series is one of INFLUENCE Magazine's recurring features, and we've had the opportunity to photograph several of them over the years. Each one is a portrait session built around a single subject, and the Garage gives us the controlled environment to make each one feel distinct. The challenge with a recurring series is that the visual format needs to feel consistent for the magazine while still reflecting the personality of whoever is sitting in front of the camera. That means the lighting, the composition, and the creative direction shift from session to session even though the setting stays the same.
For Flagg's session, we set up Profoto lighting and tethered to our MacBook Pro running Capture One so we could review the portraits in real time as we worked. Tethering is a standard part of our Garage workflow because it lets us make precise adjustments to lighting ratios and composition on the fly. When you're working with a subject who has a strong visual presence, like Flagg does, the photography needs to match that energy. You're looking for the frames that communicate who this person is without needing the article to explain it.
Portrait photography in a studio environment is about control, but the best results come when the subject brings something of themselves into the frame. Our job as the editorial photographer is to create the conditions where that can happen; the right light, the right lens, and enough space for the subject to relax into who they are. We have photographed a wide range of Florida's political press corps, lobbyists, and public figures in the Garage over the years, and each session adds to the body of work that defines what Tallahassee photography looks like beyond the Capitol building itself.
As editorial photographers in Florida, we value the "What I've Learned" assignments because they give us the chance to spend focused time with a single subject rather than moving through a high-volume session. That kind of one-on-one portrait work is where you can really dial in the details and deliver images that stand on their own.
This feature was photographed by The Workmans for INFLUENCE Magazine and appeared in the Fall 2021 issue and was written by Rosanne Dunkelberger. 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!
