BTS: Photographing Jennifer Lawrence for Her Foundation on a Time Crunch

Clay Cook recently photographed Jennifer Lawrence for the Jennifer Lawrence Foundation, which "assists and empowers charitable organizations that fulfill children's vital needs and drive arts awareness and participation." In what's perhaps the most unique twist, Cook has always wanted to professionally photograph Lawrence, who he and his family actually grew up with in another lifetime. But he describes wanting to earn it, and finally did.

Lawrence was in Louisville, Kentucky for a function at the Frazier History Museum, which was showing a "Hunger Games" exhibit that benefited the Jennifer Lawrence Foundation. Although Cook had known Lawrence through his sister when they were all kids, they had long since fallen out of touch. But on this trip, coincidentally, Cook's career finally brought them together for a shoot when a mutual client, Nadus Films, reached out.

Of course, Cook used an Oliphant backdrop (made famous, in part, by Annie Leibovitz' use of them) and a Phase One 80-megapixel camera to make the most of the opportunity. Cook goes into much more detail about the shoot on his site, but after a bit of back and forth typical of the shifting schedules of an A-list celebrity, Cook was able to photograph Lawrence for both a portrait session and a quick session that featured Lawrence with some of the kids that her foundation helps.

Check out the full story on Cook's website.

You can also learn more about how Clay shoots in his full length Fstoppers tutorial. 

Images used with permission.