Love Island

The latest assignment for my meetup group was to make a couple portrait while avoiding romance clichés.

I made a list of pairings in my area who could be a good fit and ended up landing on advertising colleague Tom Greenwood and his wife Svenja. I chose them because they are local, agreeable and good looking. With hindsight, I can see that it helped that they are both creatives, Tom on the writing side, Svenja as a designer.

Taking inspiration from Justine Curlin and Tina Barney, I imagined them sitting on their outdoor patio in their bathing suits with a relaxed vibe.

But in reviewing my on-going list of under-exploited ideas, I came across one that I’d tried with some twin sisters a while back, and sensed that there was more potential for this idea. All that was written was, “One lies on top of the other."

This idea struck me partially because I had just visited with former intern Federica Belli in Paris, and she showed us a recent body of work she’d done where she photographed herself posing intimately with strangers, often lying on top of them. They were stunning and memorable.

I went to the session with this, and a few other ideas, after scouting their home a few days previous. Honestly, I was surprised when the kitchen shot executing this idea came together so magnificently. It started off well, with them face-to-face initially, but then I flipped Tom around to get a variation, it only got better!

In reviewing the session after, I was a little uncomfortable though, wondering if they were too similar to Federica’s pictures. But with some investigation, I saw that this is a theme explored by a number of photographers, and that no one artist could claim it solely as their own.

I see my portrait of Tom and Svenja now as part of a larger trend of awkward pairing photographs, and I hope that it rises to the same level as these other exceptional works.

Top Image: Tom & Svenja Greenwood, Montclair NJ, May 2025.

Second Image: From the series, “How Far is too Close to the Heart?” by Federica Belli.

Third Image: From the series, “Experimental Relationship” by Pixy Liao.

Fourth Image: David and Claudio, New York, NY, from the series, “Touching Strangers, by Richard Renaldi.

Fifth Image: From the series, “Double Life” by Kelli Connell.

Bottom Image: Elizabeth and Virginia Sanchez, February 2004. Shot for a story on twins for Discover Magazine, by Chris Buck.