[Garth Herrick]

Hi Beth,

Unfortunately this was a posthumous portrait. I never met him in life. The Federal District Court supplied me with a couple dozen official photographs in 2000 for the first portrait, which I dumped as digital scans into my computer. Of those were several similar photos from the same photo shoot, and I took the best head, hands, robe folds, etc., from them and combined them in Photoshop. Since I already had these image files, it was simple to do this second portrait. It never feels right to work from someone else's photography, but there was no other option. Beth, I think you are right in your analysis of the lighting. One light off to the side, and a large softbox light in front near the camera. The light had to be interpreted because, for example, the hands were so brightly lit, they appeared more or less in a caucasian tonal range. One of the toughest aspect of this posthumous interpretation was how to determine his correct skin color and tone. I did not trust the photos, with their magenta cast, so I interviewed many people who knew him, and took reference photos of people with a similar complexion to guide me. His son, who has a recording studio, coincidentally lives just a block from me, but he is very light skinned, and has little resemblance to his father. While he couldn't sit in for the portrait, he offered insight and nodding reassurance of my efforts to get the likeness right.

Thanks for your insight!