More Than a Headshot
A headshot says, “Here I am.” A portrait says, “This is who I am.”
This was technically Calla’s headshot session. The goal was practical: to create strong, polished images she could use as she enters the performance space. Acting, singing, dancing, auditions, and the whole wonderful, terrifying, confidence-building world of putting yourself out there.
But I have never been very interested in making kids look like tiny corporate executives. A headshot should still feel like a person, especially with a child.
Calla has two great loves: performing and softball. One side of her is stage lights, music, movement, expression, and the joy of becoming someone else for a moment. The other side is cleats, dirt, a glove, a bat, and the focus it takes to step up to the plate.
At first, those might seem like two completely different worlds, but they are not. Both require presence. Both require confidence. Both ask a young person to stand there, take up space, and trust herself.
The softball photographs may not be the ones Calla uses professionally, at least not right away, but they still matter. They show another kind of confidence, another kind of presence, and another part of who she is becoming. A performance headshot may help her step into the audition room, but the portraits around it tell a fuller story. They remind us that she is not just one thing. She is a performer, an athlete, a kid with big energy, and a person still unfolding in beautiful light.
That is what I wanted these photographs to hold. Yes, we needed the headshot. The clean image. The one that says, “Here I am.” But I also wanted the session to make room for the rest of her. The performer, the athlete, the serious face, the big laugh, the softness, the strength, and the kid who is still becoming…
This session was done in conjunction with The Collective at the Jersey Shore and photographed at The Art Club venue on Ocean Avenue in Asbury Park, which gave us room to create something polished but still personal.
Because kids are not one thing. They are not just the audition photo, the team photo, the school photo, or the smile-for-grandma photo. They are all of it at once. The curls, the glove, the bat, the voice, the movement, the nerves, the confidence, and the dream.
That is the part I love photographing. Not just what they look like, but who they are right now, before the next version of themselves arrives.
Childhood moves fast. One minute, they are gap-toothed smiles, wild curls, softball practices, dance steps, songs in the car, and big dreams. Then suddenly, that version of them has slipped into memory.
A good portrait is more than a headshot. It is light, timing, and a glimpse of who they are becoming.
Need a headshot that feels more like you? For performers, professionals, parents returning to work, people dating again, and anyone ready to be seen as they are now.
Email sue@suebarr.com or call/text (646) 369-5033