Portrait of a Law Professor (and Free Climber…)

Some portraits speak as much through their surroundings as through the subject’s face. This image—shot on T-Max 400—was conceived to be less about formality and more about quiet juxtapositions. The professor, sharply dressed in a waistcoat and tie, sits in an office that is anything but stiff: behind him, a large photograph of a free climber grips the rock face with raw, physical intensity.

The contrast is the story. The academic’s world is one of precision, argument, and interpretation of law; the climber’s, one of risk, strength, and moment-to-moment survival. And yet, the connection between the two is more than decorative. This professor is himself a climber—an individual who understands that intellectual tenacity and physical grit are not far apart in spirit.

Technically, the shot was taken with available light only, relying on the subtle interplay between the ambient illumination and the natural shadows of the room. The grain structure of the T-Max 400 worked in my favour, adding a quiet texture to the skin tones and a sense of timelessness. Focus falls primarily on the professor’s profile, while the climber in the background remains slightly out of focus—deliberately so—to keep the attention on the human subject while allowing the visual metaphor to breathe.

Compositionally, I framed the shot to create a dialogue between foreground and background without letting one dominate. There’s a certain unease in the angle of the cables on the wall, the corner of the desk intruding at the right—elements that resist the overly polished portrait and instead speak to a lived-in working space.

In the end, the portrait became less about a “law professor” and more about the dual identity of a person balancing two demanding worlds: the intellectual climb and the literal one.