FT Business Education Magazine

I’ve made countless portraits of corporate executives
over the years, but I cannot recall any of my subjects
being more enjoyable to work with than Sandra.

This past July, I had the pleasure of photographing Facebook’s Sandra Marichal for the Financial Times (FT) Business Education Magazine.  Coincidentally, I had met Sandra for the first time just two months earlier when we sat together on a panel at a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) marketing conference.  So when I received an email from the FT commissioning me to make portraits of “a young female business executive from Facebook”, I was pleased when this person turned out to be Sandra.

The brief I received from the FT photo editor was to make a portrait of Sandra in a place that referenced “iconic Singapore”.  I couldn’t decide if “iconic” meant somewhere with historical significance (e.g. Chinatown) or a place that referenced the city state’s modernity (e.g. the CBD skyline) — so I decided to photograph Sandra in both locations.

I’ve made countless portraits of corporate executives over the years, but I cannot recall any of my subjects being more enjoyable to work with than Sandra.  She was bold and enthusiastic and game for everything — which is evident by the cover photograph of Sandra standing on the edge of the lily-padded infinity pool underneath the ArtScience Museum — and her energy and spirit were infectious.

We ended up shooting outdoors for a couple of hours that day, and the results, as well as the feature about Sandra, her education, her career, her passions and her adventures, are published today in the Financial Times.

Sandra and I began a friendship during our shoot, and I am looking forward to seeing her again.  But in the meantime, the next corporate executive I photograph certainly has a tough act to follow.