Why I Left the Corporate World to Photograph Dubai Leaders
Thirty-four years ago I joined the corporate world. The last fifteen were in executive roles, around boardrooms and across cities, learning how leaders carry themselves, how they decide, and how they are seen. Somewhere around 2015, when my children left for university, a quieter question kept returning: what do I want to do that is entirely my own? The answer came through a camera.
The slow discovery
Photography started as a serious hobby. I was drawn to portraits before anything else — faces, expressions, the moment a person stops performing and starts being themselves. I took classes. I earned my credentials — a Certified Professional Photographer with the Professional Photographers of America, and a graduate of the New York Institute of Photography. I kept photographing.
In 2023 I took the step most people only talk about. I left the corporate career and founded fotogie Portrait Photography, licensed in Dubai as Fotogie Portrait Photography FZE LLC. Today I make executive headshots and personal-branding portraits for leaders in Dubai and the wider region.
Why executives
I spent years on the other side of the lens. I know how it feels to walk into a meeting where your photo got there before you did. I know the quiet cost of a profile picture that no longer looks like you — the ones taken in a hurry, cropped from a wedding, or borrowed from a conference backdrop five years ago.
People form opinions in milliseconds. Research from Princeton puts it at 100 milliseconds. Harvard research says the same, and it adds that those snap judgments rarely get revised, even when people are given more information.
For a leader, that first impression is a business asset. It can open a door, or quietly keep it shut.
My work exists for the leader who has outgrown their current photo and knows it.
How a session actually works
Every session begins with a conversation, not a checklist. Before we agree on a package or a date, I want to understand your story — what you lead, who you lead for, where this photo will travel. LinkedIn, keynote banners, book jackets, boardroom portraits — each one asks something slightly different of the image.
On the day, the camera is almost beside the point. My job is to get you to a place where you forget it is there. That takes time, calm, and gentle direction. Most of what you see in my portfolio was made in the first forty minutes of someone being surprised they could feel this at ease.
I guide expression, posture, wardrobe, and the small decisions that make a photo feel like you on your best ordinary day — not a dressed-up version of someone else.
Who I work with
My clients tend to be CEOs, founders, board members, women leaders, financial professionals, consultants, and senior specialists. Some are stepping into new roles. Some are launching books or keynotes. Some simply decided it was time their photo caught up with who they have become.
The common thread is not a title. It is readiness. Readiness to be seen clearly.
What a session is like
I keep sessions small and unhurried. We talk first, usually over a short call. We decide the look together — studio, on-location, or something in between. On the day you arrive, we settle in. We shoot. We review. You leave with a plan for the images you need, not a hard drive you will never open.
A few days later, you receive your gallery — polished, retouched with a light hand, ready to use everywhere you show up.
A personal note
I did not come to photography young. I came to it after a long first career, as a father and now a grandfather, with the perspective that only time gives. I think that is why the people I photograph tend to relax. They know I am not trying to make them look like anyone else. I am trying to help them look exactly like themselves — a little lighter, a little more at ease, and finally recognizable in the way they deserve to be.
If that is the kind of photo you have been meaning to make for a while, I would be glad to hear from you.
