Lightkeep Project
Lightkeep is a portrait project built on a single idea: when you strip everything back, the truth becomes unmistakable.
I created Lightkeep as a private creative space — free from briefs, expectations or commercial pressures. A place where the only rule was no compromise. No optimisation. No adjustments. No “one more version”. Just one person, one lens, and one honest frame.
Every portrait is stripped to its essentials: black and white, front-lit, no background, no distractions.
A face. A moment. A truth.
And in removing everything unnecessary, something surprising happened:
the less I included, the more people saw.
Over time, Lightkeep evolved into something larger than a personal project.
It became a reminder — to me and to the organisations I work with — that clarity is always found at the centre, never in the noise.
A portrait is only ever trying to do one thing: show you who someone really is.
Businesses, leaders and brands are no different.
When I help a company refine its messaging or rebuild its narrative, I’m looking for the same thing I look for here: the clear, simple, human truth that everything else should orbit around.
Lightkeep is that principle, made visual.
A reminder that when you return to the essence, the story reveals itself.
This series is ongoing.
Each portrait is its own world — a whole story, held in a single frame.
Shot on combination of Leica and Canon, single light source, usually available light.
“A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it.”
— Edward Steichen
