Second Act

Two founders who started companies after sixty, photographed on the same grey canvas a week apart.

Client: The Brinemark Review
Discipline: Portrait
Year: 2025
Made at: Stage Two
Licensed use: Editorial · print and web · one-time
Delivered: 7 portraits for a 10-page feature

Credits

Photographer Ines Halloran
Photo editor Sam Achterberg, The Brinemark Review
Assistant Theo Varga

The Review's feature followed two men who had each started a business in their sixties. The photo editor wanted them to read as a pair without ever being in the same room.

We kept everything identical between the two sittings — canvas, stool, light, lens height — and let the conversation decide the frames. One of them laughed for most of an hour.

7 frames

Close-up of a grey-haired man in a white shirt resting his chin on his fist, looking off to the side. — The first sitter, between answers.

The grey-haired man in a white shirt, hand under his chin, half-smiling against a grey backdrop. — Later, when the questions turned to his daughters.

Man with a full white beard in a grey shirt, seated on a stool and leaning towards the camera. — The second sitter on the same stool a week later.

The bearded man on a wooden stool, tilting his head and laughing against a mottled grey backdrop. — He would not stop laughing, so we stopped asking him not to.

The bearded man in a grey shirt smiling warmly, hands resting on his knees. — The opening spread.

The bearded man resting his chin on his fist, looking straight at the camera. — The pull-quote portrait.

The bearded man leaning on a table with his head resting on his hand. — The last frame on the contact sheet, used as the closing image.

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