Portrait Photography with "Max of Arabia"

One of the main objectives of portrait photography is to portray a person’s essence. It could be in the way they smile or the way their eyes shy away from the camera’s lens. Personalities are dynamic in their very own way and are influenced by so many external factors, so sometimes capturing someone’s character in a still image could prove to be a challenging task. It is essential to build a connection with your subject and make them feel comfortable during a shoot in order to get the best outcome.I have been experimenting with portrait photography for years now, and for this project I chose to work with Max because of his intriguing identity. Some of you may know him as “Max of Arabia” (a name intended to play on Laurence of Arabia.) Max’s story is a unique one: he is half British and half American but has grown quite fond of the Middle East and the UAE in specific. In fact, he speaks the Arabic language fluently, has lived here for the past 10 years and calls this place home. When asked if he considers himself a person with a dual-identity his answer was:As for identity, I am kind of lost. Externally I don’t look like I belong in this hemisphere, but internally I am convinced I was destined to live here. I am happy to be from the US and UK, but wouldn’t want to live there as this is where I call home.It was fun working on these pictures with Max in them. He is normally used to taking pictures and videos of himself for his social media content but now that someone else was doing it, we got to meet the camera-shy version of him.Here is the outcome:

Max thinks some of these pictures captured a serious side of him that a lot of people do not normally see.Are there any interesting portrait photography experiences you have to share? We’d love to hear from you.