Julia Nance, In the studio. (Portrait)

I have always found it interesting how the elements of a portrait come together to communicate about a particular person . When the visual is the only communication it is a powerful thing to be able to take a photograph of a person. In my series of studio portraiture I have use different lighting for each subject. Each person and each photograph are distinctly individual. Growing up along the screen-generation means photos are everywhere and taken every day. Selfies, group photos, timer, front-facing cameras have given portraiture a new spin. Are people becoming vainer because of it? Taking my subjects into the studio is a humbling experience. Directing them, lighting them and then tweaking my lighting between shots means that they must be patient. Some of them have to be continually drawn away from their phones or their posture re-adjusted. But the end result shows engagement with me as their photographer. This time they have to trust me with the camera, rather than their safe, secure, under-their-control smartphone.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.