Joe Alessi
Every now and then, a shoot feels less like work and more like picking up a conversation you didn’t realise had paused.
That was this one.
Joe came into the Manchester studio on a grey sort of morning, the kind where the light does you a favour without making a big deal about it. No harsh edges, no drama. Just soft, honest light coming through the windows and settling into the room. It suited him. Or maybe he suited it.
We didn’t rush into anything. I don’t think either of us are wired that way. There’s usually a bit of a reset at the start of a session, especially with actors. They spend so much time being looked at, judged, assessed… it takes a minute to shake that off and just be a person again. So we let it breathe.
It felt familiar, like working with someone I’d known for years, even though it wasn’t really about that. More just an ease. No need to perform straight away. No overthinking. Just figuring things out as we went.
Joe’s done a fair bit of TV work, and you can tell. Not in a showy way, just in how comfortable he is in front of a camera once he settles into it. There’s an awareness there, but it doesn’t feel forced. It’s more like he knows when to leave space, when to do less. Which, to be honest, is usually where the better portraits live anyway.
We kept things simple. Natural light, minimal setup, nothing trying too hard. I’d rather spend time watching how someone moves or how their expression shifts between frames than constantly adjusting lights. There’s something about that in-between moment, when someone drops whatever version of themselves they think they’re supposed to give you. That’s the bit I’m always looking for.
There was a point midway through where everything just clicked into place. Not in a big, cinematic way. More subtle than that. A slight shift in posture, a quieter expression. The kind of thing you’d probably miss if you blinked. But it felt right.
We’d check in as we went, turning the camera around every so often. I like doing that. It keeps things collaborative. Less of me taking, more of us making something together. It also helps strip away that lingering question people have of “am I doing this right?” which, honestly, isn’t that useful anyway.
The whole session stayed pretty calm. No big moments, no forced direction. Just a steady rhythm. A few laughs here and there, a couple of pauses, the occasional reset. It’s funny how often that leads to the images that feel the most like someone.
By the end, it didn’t feel like we’d pushed for anything. More like we’d just let it happen.
And I think that’s probably the point.
If you want to see more of what Joe’s up to, you can find him here:
