Back when I was at The N&O, I photographed award-winning science fiction writer and NC State faculty member John Kessel in his home. I wanted to shoot something with a sci-fi feel but was limited in the way of props that told the story about John's book and other works. Since John had a fun personality and was willing to do something a little different, I asked him to peek over the top of his book. Traditionally, at that time, editors at The N&O preferred pictures of people that actually showed how the people look so I was taking a chance at hiding a good portion of John's face. His slightly arched eyebrow gave the image a whimsical touch and the blue gel I threw on the background of the living room added to the other-worldly feel. Having the title of the book large in the frame helped sell the image to the features editor and the photo ran as I had hoped.

Now fast forward to present day and my need to photograph John for the upcoming Chancellor's Annual Report. The previous image had always stuck with me, so I immediately thought of re-shooting John in the same way, just to compare. Shooting in his Tompkins Hall office, I tried to duplicate the lighting from memory. It was not until 10 minutes ago that I located my digital copy of The N&O version. I did a pretty decent job I think since I had seen the first one in probably a dozen or so years. It's interesting how well we can remember some things.


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