I picked up my first camera at the age of three and although I spent a good part of my childhood snapping away, my passion was always first and foremost for the theatre. While other kids were whisked away in mini-vans to soccer games, I headed to weekend children’s acting workshops, was often the youngest person in mostly adult acting classes and spent several summers at theatre camp. I continued to dedicate myself to my craft as I got older, participating in National Shakespeare Competitions at Lincoln Center in NYC and deciding to try my hand at Directing in my final year of high school. After graduation and a summer filled with afternoons of “An Actor Prepares” and a plethora of other must-read theatre theory books, I packed my bags and came to New York City where I began my B.F.A in Acting and Directing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. What happened that year was unexpected: the more I learned about directing that year (thank you, Fritz Ertl), the less “hungry” I felt to make a life for myself as an actor. I decided to take the year off to re-think my life in the theatre.

Fast forward a year. After falling in love with a filmmaker while taking tickets at an old movie theatre, I, in-turn, fell in love with The Movies. I enrolled as a full-time student at the University of East Anglia in the UK where I majored in Film and American Studies- yes, I know, I know, “American Studies in England?” you ask. It was fascinating, I assure you. It was outside of my classes there, though, that I had the opportunity to further develop my skills as a theatre director. I took on Paula Vogel’s “How I Learned to Drive” in my first year and what became an award winning production of Edward Albee’s “The Play About the Baby” in my second. While working away on those plays- occasionally skipping the odd film screening to do so- I found a new passion in working with actors, understanding their process, doing whatever it took during rehearsals to help them find within themselves that intangible thing that separates a good performance from a truly transcendent one (something I could never muster as an actor myself)…

So here I am now, back in NYC as a Photographer with what amounts to my entire lifetime thus far immersed in the theatre and in film: watching it, studying it, performing it, making it happen. And it is this first-hand experience, I feel, that is of tremendous value to both me as a headshot photographer and to my clients as performers. Simply put, we speak the same language. The headshot is more than a commodity (although I understand its intensely important commercial value). During our session together, I endeavor to collaborate with you to bring out your finest you. I always say that the same words that apply to the greatest performances also apply to the best headshot: they are focused, energetic, grounded, open and committed. And it is those qualities that I try to cultivate in our sessions. The shoots are supportive, sometimes rigorous, fun and spontaneous and always focused on the task at hand: capturing you and your spirit so that it will be abundantly clear through your pictures that you have something that no one else can offer. I look forward to working with you.
—Jordana