Cops of New York Portraits

How I approached armed police in New York to take their portraits…..

It certainly could be part of the plot for a heist movie. An English photographer is planted as a decoy to flatter and ultimately distract the cops on the street. Meanwhile, in the bank, there’s an armed robbery going on. The truth is a little less Hollywood but nevertheless requires a script, direction, lighting, cameras, err iPhone actually.

I had an idea that New York cop portraits were probably few and far between, due to their intimidating reputation and that I would need to push past any nerves to get what I wanted.

I initially broke the ice by asking individual officers for their advice on how I might go about getting other cops to take part in my project. After I had shot a few, I used my phone to show what I’d been doing, which enabled me to then ask whether they would like to take part and told them that I would delete anything that they weren’t happy with.

There was something in each shot to genuinely get excited about. These cops looked tough, beautiful, sitting in high-tech patrol cars, framed by the New York streets.

I asked them to give up caring about how they looked and allow me to take control. My team have heard me say it a thousand times, ‘the less you care, the better you’ll look’.

Whether it’s a personal project like The Cops of New York or a commission, I look to help turn off the ‘turning it on’ that is so easy to adopt whenever a camera comes out.