Table-Bottom Photography

I’ve often said, “Good ideas trump money.“ With a large production budget things go smooth and easy, but oftentimes that’s not an option, and clever workarounds are the fix.

Carrie Sun had written a memoir about her time as a personal assistant for an investment executive in Manhattan, and Guardian Saturday was planning an excerpt. “I was a hedge fund billionaire’s PA. It nearly killed me,” is the title of their piece.

The book is about hustle culture on overdrive: the constant pressure for perfection, and the 24/7 cycle of being on call. Sun had to be a jack of all trades, and a master of all. And from what I can tell, she almost always hit the mark.

Top hair and makeup artist Sacha Harford applied a few of the $ signs I picked up on Etsy and then the balance of them tossed onto the table, letting them land in random fashion.

With a mix of available light, and a strobe bouncing into the corner ceiling, Sun placed her face against the glass. After a couple of adjustments, and my putting black gloves on to cut reflections, we got to shooting, developing the balance of props and portraits along the way.

Carrie was fantastic, she intuitively understood what I looking for, delivering exasperation and exhaustion in perfect visual form.

Top Image: Hustle Culture Crash

Bottom Image: BTS shot by Sophia Pallwein-Prettner