Black & Veatch Engineers Have Charisma

How do you tell an extroverted engineer from an introverted engineer? The introverted engineer looks at his shoes, the extraverted engineer looks at your shoes. Believe it or not, delivering this joke (albeit poorly) and a few one-liners actually broke the ice nicely for a recent portrait assignment for Black & Veatch, a global engineering and construction firm. Our task was to capture personality in our subjects who were not accustomed to being in front of the camera. For a photographer, creating rapport with your subject is paramount. Doing this with a complete stranger in less than 15 minutes requires charm, diplomacy, wit, and a comedians flair.  Honestly, photographer Steve Exum delivered these jokes so poorly, as did his assistant Kelsey, it was likely the sloppy delivery that created the atmosphere of fun and warmth that put the subjects at ease. It truly got them to laugh at us. We do tip our hats to the following Black & Veatch subjects that appear in this blog post in the following order … Angela Aguna, Lee Mather, Zainabe Sanusi, Cambi Colli, Clincy Simmie, Nicole Ross, and Venkatram Bachoti. This group truly brought charisma, personality and style to the shoot. This project was a global effort organized by Global Photo Associates in partnership with Exum Photography and other studios to photograph 175 of Black & Veatch’s  most accomplished engineers and professionals in 12 different cities around the world.  Of the 175 portraits, 70 of them were made by photographer Steve Exum in Cary, NC and in Overland Park, KS. All of the subjects are being honored as part of a 100 year celebration of Black & Veatch which was founded in 1915. Many thanks to Black & Veatch’s global marketing director, Chad Pulley, and project coordinator, Robert True, for putting their trust in our team. This collection of portraits are on display in 4K resolution on 6 giant flat screen displays in the Overland Park, KS world headquarters this fall. Photography by Steve Exum