I’m proud to share my 10th Yale Alumni cover in four years. All thanks to an ongoing close collaboration with art director Jeanine Dunn. What started as a one-off job reconnecting with a longtime colleague turned into a visual adventure, where we try to outdo ourselves with each assignment.
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The day before this session with Crawford Arnow, I said to my intern, “Every assignment is a chance to fail. It happens rarely, but not never, so it’s always on my mind with an upcoming shoot.”
Crawford Arnow is a senior Yale student and a successful social media creator. In a conversation with the writer, she lauded his drive and enthusiasm, and Jeanine had only good interactions with him. And certainly his social media videos were optimistic and fun. That said, it’s no longer a surprise to find seemingly cooperative and positive subjects turn out to be particular and difficult. You just don’t know what you’re going to get when folks show up.
Art Director Jeanine Dunn was with us for the first couple of scenarios, and then had to exit for other responsibilities. It’s always fun to have her there, but somehow I feel invited to do better work when she’s gone. She’s not an unpleasant influence, I think that it’s the opposite: I want to surprise and delight her with what we do after she’s left.
Despite my concerns, Crawford turned out to be an easy-going and enthusiastic sitter, and that made the shoot pleasant and productive. That said, I wasn’t particularly happy with what we were getting until we did an sunset walkaround setup at 5:30 PM.
We started towards the center of the campus, and I recognized where we were from a previous shoot and directed us towards the Yale president’s office building. As we passed between a couple of buildings and stepped into a clearing, I half-jokingly said, “We’re here to do an homage to the session with President McInnis.“
Some beautiful light was hitting the building and a tree by their back door; I took this as an opportunity to get some dynamic and playful shots. In the most nonchalant tone that I could muster, I asked Crawford to climb the tree. He was game and knew how to move even in this somewhat precarious situation.
As we were shooting, the light only got better, so we stayed with it for a while. It climaxed with Crawford leaning into the courtyard, with the beautiful end of daylight on his face.
We did two more setups in the dusk light. The final one, based on Crawford suggestion to lie in the grass, turned out to be Jeanine‘s favorite shot of the day.
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See blog pieces on Yale Alumni cover stories, such as Okwui & Peter, Gregory Crewdson, Ali Truwit, President McInnis, and The Institute for Sacred Music (& John Gambell).
Top Image: Our tenth Yale Alumni Magazine cover together, over four years.
Second Image: The opening spread of the story: Crawford Arnow, Yale University, September 11, 2026.
Third Image: My favorite setup of the day.
Bottom Image: BTS photo by Sophia Pallwein-Prettner.