Recent Work – Wright-Ryan Construction

Wright-Ryan Construction is an employee-owned commercial and residential construction company based in Portland, ME. When they worked with Perch Design Studio to remake their two company websites, they wanted to showcase the craftsmanship of their employees. They asked me to make honest portrait and lifestyle images of their employees, with a candid/natural feel and avoiding industry cliches (like construction workers with a hard hat under their arm).

Given those style goals along with budget constraints and the reality of doing photography on active construction sites, we worked with a minimal crew and used lightweight portable lighting so we could be easily mobile, minimize our disruption, and maximize safety. Over three days, we visited several commercial and residential projects and Wright-Ryan’s facilities to create a mix of portraits, candids, and staged action images.

We started at a college campus, where Wright-Ryan was building new dormitories to meet Passive House standards – among the first commercial buildings in Maine built to meet the strict energy efficiency standards, which were created for private homes.


Wright-Ryan owns their own millwork shop, where they make cabinets and do other fine woodwork for their residential projects. We were able to make some portraits there in addition to a few candid moments.



We spent time at two residential projects, again shooting a mix of candid and staged images. It was a low contrast day, so I added some subtle light where possible to bring attention to the subject and highlight details (e.g. the sawdust cloud).


One project offered the opportunity to go up in a boom lift to get an elevated perspective – something I always love to do:

Finally, another commercial project in downtown Portland. I love the texture and color palette in these shots:



Launch of the two gorgeous new websites was delayed by the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but they went live in fall of 2020. Here are some screenshots of how Wright-Ryan used the images:

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