These exquisite portraits of Aishwarya Rai taken for New York Times.
"When I got the assignment to shoot some Indian
actress in town, I had just returned from a shoot in
Milan, jet-lagged and feeling like the dog's
breakfast. Rai came in with her posse of agents and I
thought, man, diva is going to be problematic. She
said "Hi", shook hands with everyone, sat on the couch
and we were ready to go.
That face. From every angle, light and scope, I rarely
use the word perfection but... holy crap. I felt my
senses shed the time lag, I started breaking into a
sweat when I looked through my lense and my fingers
were getting wet. We had 20 minutes to do the
portraiture and I kept shooting non stop - like a 49
calibre rifle that never missed its target. In the
spreadsheet, about ninety percent of the shots were
good for print.
When she was about to leave, I was like a hormonal
teen wishing she'd stay longer. I didn't want the
dream to end. I was stuttering and talking like Yoda,
"Good thanking you I much."
L Hughes,
NY Times Photographer.
