After four decades of creating carefully directed portraits - telling people exactly how to sit, where to look, when to smile - I've embarked on something entirely different. The Unscripted Portrait Project strips away the usual conventions of portrait photography to reveal something more authentic. The process is deceptively simple. You sit at a table. You put your arms on it naturally. That's all the direction you'll get. Instead of hiding behind my camera and calling out adjustments, I step out from behind it and we simply talk. Face to face. Human to human. I capture moments while we engage in real conversation. This project stands in deliberate contrast to my commissioned work, where every aspect is carefully controlled to achieve specific goals - business portraits conveying authority, dating profiles projecting approachability, publicity shots hitting precise emotional notes. Here, there is no script. No agenda beyond genuine human connection. The resulting images often surprise. Without the usual armor of posed smiles and practiced expressions, something more truthful emerges. These portraits explain their subjects in a way that feels immediately authentic and deeply human. They capture not how I've directed you to appear, but who you are in a moment of genuine connection.