Stairing Contest

About a year ago, I asked City and State art director Andrew Horton to let me know if a sitting came up with Zohran Mamdani, who was running for mayor of New York at the time. Occasionally, I put in a word with a client about someone I’d like to photograph. Most of the time it ends up being something of a running joke, more than a genuine request.

I was on a late summer holiday with my family in South Carolina when I received the text. I was ready to tell Andrew that I was away and unable to do the shoot, but my wife encouraged me to fly back early and take the assignment. It was certainly an exciting opportunity, but I did spend the rest of my vacation with one foot in the sand, and the other in City Hall, metaphorically speaking. I was thinking of ideas, location options, little bits of logistics that needed to be dealt with.

Any shoot with a high-profile personality is going to include a variety of setups, as I don’t know which ones they’ll agree to. I like to do a mix of shots in real-world environments, against seamless, and then simpler spaces in rooms. And this is exactly where we landed with the mayor.

We started at a back staircase, doing test photographs with Andrew and my assistant Sophia, and then executed it with the mayor. Initially, the mayor was in good spirits and seemed game to try things. But then I asked him to sit on the stairs, and it seemed that his people, standing behind me and keeping eye contact with the mayor, were not okay with this. Why? Really? What is a negative connotation of sitting on stairs? Is it below his position or station? Honestly, I don’t know.

Interestingly, the mayor and his team were otherwise playful and humorous, and even told some fun stories about other photo shoots. The mayor mentioned how he jokingly walked towards the camera during a Rolling Stone session, and it ended up being one of the main illustrations for the story. He was like, “Why would you want to use this ridiculous picture?"

City and State Magazine was celebrating its 20th anniversary, so I had Sophia bring some balloons spelling out “2–0.“ The mayor's team allowed him to do some photographs with the balloons, which ultimately led to some amusing poses. The best moments came when the mayor was either engaged with his team, who were joking and conversing with him, or when he was mortified by our props and ideas. Hey, I’ll take it from anywhere it can come from. In this line of work, you learn to have no pride: Whatever delivers engaging results, you take it!

For the final setup, I was able to take the mayor into nice window light by a traditional fireplace. This produced one of my favorite shots from the session, as the mayor is more relaxed and present.

In fact, this was my only opportunity to talk with him one-on-one. I asked if he’d had a chance to do anything interesting over the summer. He said that he did an activity on an old train line where you pump a converted train trolley. I asked him if it was with his wife, and he said yes. I told him that I’ve been married for over 20 years, and that like him, I like to do low-key fun activities with my wife. He looked at me, seeming impressed. And said, “Congratulations, that’s truly an achievement.”

And that wrapped the shoot. The mayor got up, shook my hand, and then said his goodbyes to the rest of the team.

Top Image: Mayor Zohran Mamdani, City Hall, NYC. August 28, 2026.

Second Images: The mayor would stand on the stairs but not sit. This lacked a sense of integration with the space or relaxed quality that we were looking for. BTS photo by Sophia Pallwein-Prettner.

Bottom Image: The ghost of Richard Avedon appeared briefly during the session.