Late Thursday night I got a call from an editor at the Wall Street Journal asking if I was available early Friday morning for a shoot, details would be forthcoming. I was to go to MIT's Media Lab and photograph the research of Dr. Alex "Sandy" Pentland, whose research models human behavior through the use of cell phones, and get some portraits. Just about everything that could go wrong with a shoot did. It was short notice, the subject wasn't available until close to the deadline of the shoot, time with the subject was short, the subject's research is all on computers, and the lab was nearly empty. In spite of all that, Dr. Pentland was very gracious with his time and willing to show me a few locations around the building that he thought would be a good place for a portrait. And it was great to work with a new photo editor.
The story is available online:
The Really Smart Phone.
You can see a few more pictures from the shoot at over in the recent work section:
Outtakes: The Really Smart Phone