This Wall Street Journal assignment took me to Anthropic, where I photographed a team whose mission is both fascinating and vital. They’re part of a “red team,” tasked with stress-testing AI systems to uncover vulnerabilities. Their work is critical to making AI safer—a concept that immediately brought Terminator 2 and Skynet to mind. AI isn’t just some distant sci-fi threat anymore; it’s here. And with bad actors always looking for ways to exploit technology, ensuring its safety feels like a race against time.

The editor’s direction for the shoot was clear: “Make it futuristic.” Of course, that’s easier said than done when you’re working with a single gray seamless backdrop. But constraints like that push creativity. For the individual portraits, I used a combination of strobe and LED accent lighting to evoke a high-tech, atmospheric look. Bold, colored lighting became my key tool for transforming a minimal setup into something dynamic.

Lighting is always an art of problem-solving, especially when I’m working solo—like I often do on editorial assignments. Without assistants to manage gear or lighting, I’m constantly adjusting on the fly, multitasking between shooting, repositioning lights, and making sure everything feels right as the shoot progresses. It’s challenging but also rewarding when you find that perfect balance.

For the group portrait, I wanted to take a different approach—something that captured the weight and importance of the work they’re doing. I thought of it as a superhero-inspired concept, with dramatic lighting and confident poses to reflect their mission. I explained the vision, and after some light coaching, the team got into it naturally. They had a great dynamic with each other, which made the shoot feel collaborative and fun despite initial nerves (since many of them had never been in front of a camera for press before).

By the time we wrapped, the nerves had faded, and their personalities came through in ways that made the images feel both strong and approachable. That’s always my goal—to create a space where people can trust me to tell their story authentically.

In the end, this shoot reaffirmed something I’ve learned time and again: with the right approach to lighting and composition, even a simple setup can become visually striking. It’s that challenge of making something extraordinary out of limitations that keeps me coming back to editorial work.