Precisely. A World-Class Literary Biographer for: Distinction Magazine

Not long after my arrival in Hampton Roads I had the opportunity to photograph Blake Bailey. 

"Bailey is that most oxymoronic of things, a famous literary biographer, which means that for a literary biographer he is famous, although, as he says, “there’s not a huge crowd of people clamoring to be literary biographers.” Bailey is the author of what he calls “cinder block” books on Richard Yates and John Cheever, two colossal alcoholics who happen to have been brilliant writers (although reading Yates, he says, is akin to having your teeth drilled without anesthetic). Next up, Charles Jackson, author of The Lost Weekend and other novels, a writer whose addictive tendencies, Bailey says, make the others look like pikers. He is at the top of his field...."  Janine Latus Distinction Magazine

Creative Director EJ Toudt requested that I approach the shoot with the intent of creating something moody in tonality. I arrived early morning and the light in Mr. Bailey's house was perfect. Having been in the Middle East for three years, where I was often required to shoot evenly lit portraits, this assignment was a breath of fresh air. 

Here are a few from the take.