Time Travels // Tallahassee Magazine
The Workmans photographed 92-year-old memoirist Ann Camp at her historic Tallahassee home for Tallahassee Magazine's feature on her life and writing.
Time Travels // Tallahassee Magazine
Tallahassee Magazine assigned us to photograph Ann Camp for a feature in their September/October 2022 "Senior Living" section. The story, written by Emma Witmer, profiled the 92-year-old memoirist and her writing process, and our assignment took us to Camp's historic home in Tallahassee for an environmental portrait session.
Photographing someone in their nineties in their own home requires a particular kind of care. You're working with a subject who may move more slowly, who may be more sensitive to bright lighting, and whose comfort in the space matters more than any creative concept you brought with you. The session needs to work around the subject, not the other way around. As Tallahassee photographers, we've photographed people across a wide range of ages for editorial assignments, and sessions with older subjects are some of the most rewarding because the images tend to carry a weight and a presence that younger subjects don't always bring to the frame.
Camp's home is a historic property in Tallahassee, and the article describes a warm living room where the interview took place. Historic homes give you rich visual material to work with: architectural details, natural light filtered through older windows, and interiors that have been shaped by decades of living. The challenge is being respectful of a space that's clearly been curated over a lifetime while still finding the compositions that work for a magazine layout. We worked with our Canon mirrorless system and chose lenses that let us frame Camp within her home environment without needing to rearrange or disrupt the space.
For the portrait work, we kept the setup minimal. Not every session benefits from bringing in a full lighting setup, and a home environment with an older subject is one of those cases where working with the available light and supplementing gently, if at all, often produces the most natural and comfortable results. The goal was images that felt like you were sitting in the room with Camp, not images that looked like a magazine crew had taken over her living room.
Environmental portrait photography like this is about patience and presence. You spend time with the subject, you let them settle into the session, and you wait for the moments where their personality comes through naturally. That's when the best frames happen. Features like this one for Tallahassee Magazine remind us that some of the most compelling photography in Tallahassee comes from simply sitting with someone and letting their story show up in the photographs.
This feature was photographed by The Workmans for Tallahassee Magazine and appeared in the September/October 2022 issue and was written by Emma Witmer. 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!
Out of the Basement and Into the Center of Every Florida Court // Historical Review
Out of the Basement and Into the Center of Every Florida Court // Historical Review
The feature in Historical Review
The Investiture of the Honorable John D. Couriel // Historical Review
The Investiture of the Honorable John D. Couriel // Historical Review
The feature in Historical Review
Rising Stars Class 2022 // INFLUENCE Magazine
Rising Stars Class 2022 // INFLUENCE Magazine
The feature in INFLUENCE Magazine and 850 Business Magazine.
All Hail Ashley Longshore // INFLUENCE Magazine
The Workmans photographed art collectors in Tallahassee and Tampa with their Ashley Longshore paintings for INFLUENCE Magazine's feature on the pop artist's following in Florida's political world.
All Hail Ashley Longshore // INFLUENCE Magazine
INFLUENCE Magazine assigned us to photograph a feature on art collectors in Florida's political world for their Winter 2022 issue. The story, written by Tamara Lush, profiled several collectors of artist Ashley Longshore's work, and our assignment took us to three locations across the state: Susie McKinley's home in Tallahassee, Ana Cruz's home in Tampa, and Anthony Pedicini's home in Tampa.
Photographing art in someone's home is a specific kind of editorial challenge. You're documenting a piece of artwork, but you're also telling a story about the person who collects it and the space they've chosen to display it in. The art itself is bold and colorful; Longshore's work is large-scale pop art with a lot of texture, glitter, and visual energy. Our job wasn't to reproduce the paintings; it was to photograph the collectors alongside the pieces in a way that communicated the relationship between the person and the art on their walls.
Working in private homes always requires a different approach than a studio or a public location. You're adapting to the layout, the existing light, and the finishes of each room. A painting hung in a living room with warm overhead lighting reads differently than one on a wall with natural window light, and you have to manage reflections off glass, glitter, and glossy surfaces. We used Profoto lighting at each location to give us control over how the art and the subjects were lit without creating harsh reflections on the canvases. Getting the balance right so that both the painting and the person look good in the same frame takes some finesse with modifier placement and angle.
The multi-city format meant we were managing travel between Tallahassee and Tampa alongside the scheduling of three private home visits. Each collector had their own availability window, and you're a guest in someone's home, so you need to work respectfully and efficiently. As Florida photographers, we've developed a rhythm for multi-location editorial assignments like this; you plan the logistics ahead of time so that when you arrive at each home, you can focus entirely on the photography rather than figuring out where to set up.
What we liked about this assignment is that it sits in an unexpected space for editorial photographers in Florida. Most people associate our work with political portraits and session coverage, but an assignment like this shows the range of stories that publications like INFLUENCE Magazine cover. Photographing art collectors in their homes, with the work they love on the walls behind them, is a different kind of portrait photography, and it was a fun change of pace.
This feature was photographed by The Workmans for INFLUENCE Magazine and appeared in the Winter 2022 issue and was written by Tamara Lush. 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!
Tally Scene // INFLUENCE Magazine
Tally Scene // INFLUENCE Magazine
The feature in INFLUENCE Magazine
Art on the Capital City // INFLUENCE Magazine
The Workmans photographed murals and public art installations across Tallahassee for INFLUENCE Magazine's Winter 2022 feature on the city's growing street art scene.
Art on the Capital City // INFLUENCE Magazine
INFLUENCE Magazine asked us to photograph a feature on the growing mural scene across Tallahassee for their Winter 2022 issue. The story, written by Rosanne Dunkelberger, covered more than a dozen murals and public art installations spread across the city, from Railroad Square to Cascades Park to South Monroe Street and beyond. For us, that meant a multi-location assignment covering a lot of ground across downtown Tallahassee and the surrounding neighborhoods.
Photographing murals and street art presents a different set of challenges than a typical portrait or editorial session. The art itself is the subject, and our job is to document it in a way that communicates both the scale and the detail of each piece. A mural that covers the side of a building reads very differently in person than it does in a magazine spread, so we had to think carefully about how to frame each one. Some of these works are massive; the "Greetings from Tallahassee" postcard piece on the back of The Other Side Vintage in Railroad Square, for example, needs a wide perspective to take in the full composition. Others, like the BirdO animal hybrids in the underpass near Cascades Park, reward closer framing where you can see the texture and detail in the paint.
The logistics of an assignment like this come down to planning the route and working with available light. These are all outdoor locations, many of them on walls that face specific directions, which means the sun hits them differently depending on the time of day. We mapped out the locations ahead of time and sequenced them based on which walls would have the best light at which hours. Our Canon mirrorless cameras and a range of Canon lenses gave us the flexibility to go wide on full building facades and then pull in tight on details without swapping too much gear between stops.
This feature also has a personal connection for us. One of the murals included in the article is the Never Forgotten Coast piece at the intersection of West Van Buren Street and South Adams Street, which came out of a project we founded after Hurricane Michael. Seeing that included alongside work by internationally recognized artists was a proud moment, and it made this assignment feel a little more personal than most.
As Tallahassee photographers, we spend a lot of time in this city, and assignments like this remind us how much the visual landscape here has changed over the years. There's a layer of creativity on these walls that most people drive past without slowing down, and it was great to help INFLUENCE Magazine give it the attention it deserves.
This feature was photographed by The Workmans for INFLUENCE Magazine and appeared in the Winter 2022 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!
Who Was Justice Macrae? // Florida Supreme Court Historical Review Magazine
Who Was Justice Macrae? // Florida Supreme Court Historical Review Magazine
We teamed up with Florida Supreme Court Historical Society for a feature of Justice Macrae in Florida Supreme Court Historical Review Magazine. No one actually knows what Justice Macrae looked like, but we had the opportunity to capture a portrait that represents him. It was our first time in the Florida Supreme Court and we were thrilled to be a part.
