Elizabeth Holmes: 220 Faces

About this piece: As with my Vitalik Video Grid NFT, I’m seeking to create a new kind of portrait here, something more fluid than a single photograph. At times I’ll shoot hundreds of images for the single final photo that ends up published. All those unseen images can combine to produce a new view of the subject, especially one as controversial as Elizabeth Holmes. I find it notable how many of the portraits include her now infamous stare.

About the shoot: When I photographed Holmes for the Forbes 400 cover, she was the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world. A year later, Forbes estimated her net worth at zero. And now she’s on trial.

What struck me was how accessible she was. I’ve photographed many tech CEOs, and no one gives you two hours of time like she did. She was polite, genuine and friendly. She asked about me and my crew. She did her own hair and makeup. She barely had her publicist around. She took direction and avoided the power poses that Forbes shoots tend to attract. She was a dream subject. I asked her to relax her face and just look into the camera, and we got that deep stare.

While these images began as portraits of a young Silicon Valley visionary, I now feel they’re indicative of this entire era in tech: the fake-it-till-you-make-it ethos, the desire to believe in visionaries and saviors, the often-accompanying market mania.