Coleson & Jackson

Senior Portraits

The boys’ mom reached out to Anthony in person. She wanted a great photo with her sons and some shots of the twins together. Standard senior portrait thinking.

Anthony had a different read. If the session was going to work, it needed to be about the boys first: their world, their interests. He talked to Coleson and Jackson separately before anything was planned.

Coleson plays running back on the high school football team. Jackson hunts with his dad and drives his truck. Football, hunting, and a pickup truck. Wake Forest through and through.

The football session came first. Anthony got access to the high school field through the coach, early one morning with no one else around. Shot in daylight, but the plan from the start was to make it look like the stadium lights were on. Studio lighting and Photoshop handled the rest. Magazine cover, not senior portrait. Coleson got his hero shot.

The farm came next. A family friend’s land, set up for Jackson’s session: hunting photos, the truck, and the shot with mom that had started the whole conversation. Same goal: a hero shot to mirror his brother’s. Jackson got his.

At the ordering appointment they narrowed down the favorites. Then one of the boys left the room. He came back with cash, put it on the table, and said he wanted his photo. Then he told his mom to pick one she loved too.

She told Anthony she’d never seen him do that in her life.

The 9-frame collage from that session hangs in Anthony’s studio.