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San Francisco-based photographer Winni Wintermeyer visits a serene location among the redwoods of Santa Cruz, Calif. to shoot editorial portraits of author Jonathan Franzen for Saturday magazine. Regarded as both the “Great American Novelist” and a controversial figure, Jonathan was interviewed by Saturday magazine, for the 20th anniversary of his breakout novel The Corrections. Winni was invited to walk through the woods with Jonathan to capture compelling portraits of the author.
Critically acclaimed for his first novel The Corrections in 2001, Jonathan is an American novelist and essayist and has contributed to The New Yorker for over twenty-five years. His outspoken nature has caused him to receive both praise and backlash from critics over the twenty plus years of his career. His sixth and most recent novel Crossroads was released in October 2021 and tells the story of a family in crisis from the perspective of five family members. The lengthy 600 page book is the first of a projected three part series.
The shoot took place in Santa Cruz where Jonathan now lives and works. After 25 years of living in New York City, his home and office in sunny California is an ideal location for writing his essays and novels. Winni photographed Jonathan at his home in the past, so Winni was already familiar with the area. After scouting a few different locations, Winni wasn’t too excited about the initial location he had in mind because it wasn’t within walking distance and he only had an hour to shoot. He could sense that the fog would be rolling in soon, so he settled on a spot close to Jonathan’s home that had some beautiful trees.
I picked a spot closer to his home that had some interesting trees and reminded me a bit of a landscape you’d find in a Caspar David Friedrich painting.
After meeting at Jonathan’s home for a brief photo session, Winni and Jonathan made their way to the campus of UC Santa Cruz where the lighting against the redwoods was exactly what the photo editor, Louis Siroy, had envisioned for the shoot. Louis wanted to incorporate elements of the interview with the portraits and gave Winni a quote by Jonathan to use as a reference, “spread out before me will be this great blue bay with too many eucalyptus trees, but lots of redwoods in the hills.” The idea was to capture images of Jonathan around similar trees.
When we were done with our first session I jumped into the car and took the lead, pulling over when I saw some interesting light hitting the redwood trees.
It turns out the charming location Winni selected was right by Jonathan’s office where he does all of his writing which was a nice tie-in. Jonathan has spent the last five years writing in his Californian office, a stark contrast from his days living in New York City.
One of the challenges Winni faced was having to configure the lighting without the help of an assistant. Working solo can be difficult when taking care of all the technical aspects while keeping your subject engaged. Winni wanted to give the magazine a lot of different options so he kept the lighting simple, using mostly natural light and one strobe which allowed him to move quickly.
An assistant would’ve been helpful when the wind picked up and I destroyed one of my light stands trying to secure it by pushing it deep into the ground.
A long-standing relationship between Winni and Saturday magazine (formerly The Guardian Weekend) has afforded him many opportunities for interesting projects over the last ten years. He’s grateful for the chance to work for the publication and said this was a dream client of his when starting out in the business. Winni’s long-established relationship with the client has given him opportunities to work with interesting people like Jonathan.
It was actually one of my dream clients when I started out and I have to say a huge thank you to Kate Edwards, the picture editor who hired and trusted me early on.
Photographer: Winni Wintermeyer
Client: Saturday Magazine
Photo Editor: Louis Siroy