Benedict Evans

Outtakes with Ryan Coogler for Variety’s Directors on Directors portfolio and interview series which hits stands (and screens) this week. Huge thank you to @jenniferdorn and @jenhalps for sending me such a brilliant group of subjects at such alarmingly short notice 🤪 A fascinating couple of days of conversation about a lot of the films everyone’s talking about, between the people who made them. The videos of those conversations will start to appear online this week. Grooming by @christynakay . #ryancoogler @sinnersmovie @warnerbros

A few more from my time in Alabama, for ESPN, telling the story of Caden Tellier, who died last year in his teens, while playing American football. The story is about Caden, and another young man who died under similar circumstances in the seventies, Jay Kutner, and about the fact that these tragedies happen every year to a few adolescents who play the sport, and has been doing so for decades. Young people are more susceptible to this kind of injury than adults are – although adults who play football, and have done their entire lives, are often afflicted by ALS, a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated concussions and is an incredibly brutal disease (I’ve photographed sufferers for ESPN in the past). It’s a dangerous game, basically, and these few days in Alabama with Caden’s family taught me a lot about how such a loss affects the entire community, and how hard is to make sense of it. Pictured here are a few of his teammates and friends and his girlfriend (in order of appearance: Wood, Speedie, and John, Caden’s best friend, and Brooke, his girlfriend) and some scenes from the field where the accident happened. Read the full story, The Unforgotten, by @tom_junod , on ESPN.com now. Thank you again to @jessidodgephotography , @galac_ , @tonyspinelliphoto , and to everyone in Alabama who was so welcoming and open with me about their loss.

Former prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, photographed at my studio for the cover of tomorrow’s Guardian Saturday in the UK. It was an absolute pleasure to meet Jacinda – I said how nice it was to meet and photograph one of the seemingly few people who’s reached the highest levels of politics while remaining motivated by good intentions (oh, thank you! She said, who was the last politician you photographed? Er, well, Kissinger, so, I guess the bar is low, but still! Jacinda laughed; phew) – even resigning her position when she felt that the country needed someone new is admirable, if you ask me. Thank you, as always, to photo editors @kateedwa , @huntforcaroline , and @lousiroy . Art direction: @maggie_b_murphy Styling by @marisa_ellison (Jacinda wears @fforme in this picture) Hair by @antoniovelotta Makeup by @michellereda Editors: Merope Mills and @ruthlewy Commissioning editor: @katelloud

In appreciation of a dignified, empathetic man @zohrankmamdani @nycmayor

Chase Strangio, American lawyer (at the ACLU) and first openly transgender person to make oral arguments before the Supreme Court (documented in Sam Feder’s moving documentary, Heightened Scrutiny), and all round good human being. Also voted one of the world’s most influential people by TIME. Photographed for Mother Jones quite some time ago (posting some older work which I’m being reminded of as I do a website re-edit!).

@anaisweill

Portraits I’m proud of – a story about pro footballer DeAndre Hopkins and the beautiful relationship he has with his mother, Sabrina, who was blinded in an acid attack by a toxic partner when DeAndre was young. Photographed in and around Clemson, Alabama and Houston, Texas for ESPN. The first picture is of DeAndre at his childhood home and the third picture we made at the field where he first learned to play American football.

A couple of different sessions with the great Ronan Farrow

Jesse Eisenberg for Variety Thank you @jenniferdorn and @jenhalps 🙏🏻

More with @paytonwofford in Brooklyn

On this day six years ago, I was in the middle of a few days of setting up my studio in New York City hospitals, photographing doctors, nurses, janitorial staff, and other health workers during what would be the week of the highest number of deaths from Covid-19 that our city saw. We can all remember that time... it was truly terrifying. My studio was mostly setup in bays intended for ambulances, and as I was making these portraits, and doing video interviews, there were literally bodies being wheeled out on gurneys behind me. My assistant and I wore four or five layers of masks, and goggles... neither we, nor the health workers, knew much about what was happening at the time, how likely we were to survive if we caught it, how long all of this would go on for, etc., etc. I remember when Sally (@runred ) at Men’s Health called me for this, I was in my apartment (I mean, weren’t we all), and she asked me how I’d feel about going into the eye of the storm, and to make sure I was fully aware of the risks (this sounds dramatic; I’d likely have ultimately been fine if I’d contracted Covid doing this job, but, we didn’t know that then – I’d already heard of a few healthy people in their early thirties who’d died from Covid that week, so, the risk seemed very high at that moment). Anyway it was an instant yes from me, one of the reasons I love being a photographer so much is being given opportunities to see world event like this from the inside. I was terrified and very excited at the same time. Looking back at these images, I still remember everyone’s names, their stories, their harrowing stories about everything they’d witnessed as well as their self-imposed quarantine from their loved ones due to their high-risk work (Trudy Cloyd told me about watching her daughter’s first steps via Zoom, Andrew Amaranto told me about gong for ‘distanced’ walks through the city at night with his young son, using the long shadows cast by their bodies in the streetlights to hug each other... thinking about this even now, I’m holding back tears. We didn’t then). They were all quite literally in shock, I think. They were such heavy days. Glad life’s back to normal now. Oh, wait..

Payton, in Brooklyn