47 Spring St

Here’s the real story behind the cover. I told the family I’d be in and out in a couple of hours. We were documenting Sheri Gibson’s incredible eye for interior design photography in NH, and everything was going exactly to plan. I was literally packing my gear into my bag just as their daughter got home from school.

Her parents whispered to me that she was actually a bit bummed—she knew a magazine photographer was coming and was secretly hoping to get her picture taken. I’m not usually one for over-staged "lifestyle" shots, but you don't say no to that. I pulled the camera back out. We staged her at the large kitchen island and I told her to just have a snack. She immediately asked for Oreos; her parents insisted on an apple.

To keep it from looking like a school portrait, I told her to just ignore me and pretend she was watching the TV off-camera. Ten seconds later, she casually took a bite of the apple, kicked her foot up on the stool, and just existed in the space. That single, unscripted moment became the cover of the magazine.

This project is a permanent fixture in my architectural photography portfolio because it represents my core philosophy: the design is the stage, but the life inside it is the story. Whether I'm working as an editorial photographer in Portsmouth or shooting a massive commercial space, I’m always looking for that 10-second window where the staging falls away and you get something authentic. It turns out that sometimes, an apple and a foot on a stool are all the corporate branding photography you really need to tell a complete story.