Not Your Typical Author Photo Shoot

Photo Shoot

Readers are often curious to see what an author looks like. I know I am. I like to look at an author’s photo to see what it might convey about his or her character or personal style. I look for hints of the writer’s background and age, and I think about how the author chose to present himself or herself. Chances are good that the photo wasn’t taken by accident. What I really want to determine from a photo, especially if I like the writer’s novels, is impossible and unfair: I want to know if the writer and I would be friends.

As if the photo could see me back. And maybe wave a little.

The funny thing is, as a person who is in author photos, I can say quite honestly that anybody who doesn’t know me in person would have a much more accurate idea of who I am by reading something I wrote than by looking at a photo of me. Yet here we go. It’s time to update my author photo.

It is my good fortune to have a professional photographer in the family: my brother Tomy O’Brien. When we met up for our family reunion in northern Minnesota this July, we took time after breakfast one morning for a photo shoot. I threw on my favorite shirt, brushed my hair, put on my lipstick, and grabbed the bug spray. Tomy put on his sandals and gathered up his camera gear. Then we walked around the forest talking about light and backgrounds until we found a few likely spots for photo shooting.

Caragh M. O’Brien Author Photos by Tomy O’Brien, 1997, 2008, 2014.

What’s cool for me is that Tomy has taken my author photo twice before, in 1997 and 2008. We have author/photographer history as well as sister/brother history. He always gets me to smile with happy self-confidence, usually because we’re laughing between shots. I like how at ease I look in my surroundings, and how my latest shot has me in polka dots, defying the convention of dressing in neutral solids for a portrait.

Best of all, he captures something that is uniquely me.  I look at my photo and I think, that author and I would be friends–you know, if we ever met in real life.