The thinking that goes into constructed portraiture is closely related to the thinking that goes into building a brand or directing a film: how to compose belief, shape attention, and construct an image that feels true.

Over more than fifteen years in art direction, documentary and commercial filmmaking, and creative leadership, I have learned how to direct people, build visual systems, guide a process, and carry complex projects from idea to finished form. That work has made me a sharper image-maker — more fluent in how images persuade, perform, and hold together.

Open to selective freelance and editorial collaborations.

An artist sketching a character in a sketchbook at a paint-marked worktable — still from a T Brand Studio video, branded content for Calvin Klein.
Hands feeding patterned fabric through a vintage stitching machine — still from a THEY production for Etsy.
A box of artist's charcoal on a paint-spattered studio floor — Vilcek Foundation artist profile, THEY documentary work.
THEY — production studio logo (cursive wordmark).
Chef Marcus Samuelsson in a stainless-steel restaurant kitchen under heat lamps — Vilcek Foundation profile, THEY documentary work.

In 2011, I co-founded the Brooklyn-based production studio THEY with my creative partner Christy Pessagno. Through 2021, we made documentary-driven films, photography, and branded content for artists, makers, institutions, and cultural organizations. Our clients included the Vilcek Foundation, Ford Foundation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The New York Times, Penguin Books, Etsy, NYU, Columbia, NASA, and the Lucie Foundation.

For the Vilcek Foundation, we produced documentary profiles of more than forty prize recipients across art, science, theater, fashion, food, and design. Featured subjects included artists Meleko Mokgosi and Nari Ward; fashion curator Andrew Bolton and art historian Carmen Bambach; chef Marcus Samuelsson and food writer Tejal Rao; and theater director Blanka Zizka.

The work was rooted in sustained observation, intimate portraiture, and the visual rhythms of people at work in their craft. It drew on the same instincts that run through my studio practice: how to frame a person inside a world, how to listen for what an image is actually about, and how to make something feel observed rather than packaged.

To view more THEY work, visit the archive at theybklyn.com.

THEY, selected stills from documentary work, 2011–2021

Artist Meleko Mokgosi's studio, hung with large figurative paintings, wood floor and work chair — THEY documentary work.
A waiter in a vest and bow tie seated at Keens Steakhouse beneath its framed tiger painting — THEY documentary work.
A waiter in a vest and bow tie seated at Keens Steakhouse beneath its framed tiger painting — THEY documentary work.

THEY, selected stills from documentary work, 2011–2021

Teamshares — company logo (wordmark).

In 2021, I joined Teamshares as one of its first ten employees. The company was building a new model for employee ownership in small businesses — restaurants, HVAC companies, auto shops, printing companies — buying them from retiring founders and gradually transitioning ownership to the workers inside.

From 2021 to 2024, I led the creative content department, building a team of twelve working across video, photography, design, and editorial. We produced films, campaigns, internal communications, and stories that translated complex ideas — succession, equity, shared ownership — into language and images people could recognize themselves inside.

At its best, the work was about making invisible structures visible: how businesses change hands, how workers become owners, and how people begin to imagine themselves inside a new system. It was proof of how images build belief, translate abstraction into human terms, and help people recognize the structures they are being asked to enter.

A man standing arms-crossed in a parts warehouse — Teamshares employee-owner portrait (CRH).
A bearded worker in a cap and blue shirt repairing a rooftop HVAC unit — Teamshares documentary still for CRH.
A maker in a beanie and apron behind a tray of smoked cheeses — Teamshares small-business profile.
Two workers in orange safety vests handling wrapped pallets outdoors at dawn — Teamshares documentary still for NRI.
A woman standing arms-crossed in an industrial workspace with a wall map and clock — Teamshares employee-owner portrait.

Teamshares, selected stills and portraits, 2021–2024