Baby Portraits By Evan Kafka

Shooting professionally in New York for the past 15 years, Kafka has always forged his own way. “My style is something I’ve developed myself. I’m sure it’s been influenced by things I’ve seen, but I can’t really point to any one source or photographer I’m trying to be like. I learned most of it on my own by making a lot of mistakes. For eight years I used a Mamiya RZ. Part of that time I used it to shoot Polaroids, then shoot 35mm film,” he says, highlighting the irony. “Most people would say that’s backwards, but it helped me find the style I’ve become known for. Now I shoot all-digital.” Before he got the RZ, he also used a Polaroid 600 SE camera with a Mamiya lens.
One of Kafka’s most recent high-profile job has been a campaign for the Broadway musical Next to Normal. His intense headshot enlargements, ten feet tall each, fill the six doors of the Booth Theater with the six characters in the play. Tourists are often seen outside taking photographs of Kafka’s photographs. Similarly, the Brooklyn Academy of Music has plastered New York City with black and white reproductions of his headshots for As You Like It and The Tempest, directed by Sam Mendes. “Both of those jobs were totally lit with Profoto gear,” says Kafka.