Sandra Day O’Connor
Upshot
Pro photographers are seldom given a second chance to fail. And with the privilege of continuing to get freelance photo assignments from one of the nation’s foremost news magazines comes the responsibility to deliver a strong photograph every time. For me, it was often a portrait. I think my clients appreciated my belief that you can take pictures of people or you can make portraits. The distinction is important to me. But sometimes an idea that makes or breaks a compelling portrait must be improvised on the spot. Irrespective of quick thinking or proficiency with a camera — I like that word, proficiency; a portmanteau of professional and efficiency, sometimes a winning shot is simply the upshot of good luck. It might just mean having a good sport on the other side of the lens.
In July 1981, Time assigned me to commemorate President Reagan’s nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor to be the first woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court. Before her senate confirmation hearing, I flew to Phoenix to meet Judge O’Connor — not yet a Justice — at the Arizona State Capitol Building, which also houses that state’s Historic Supreme Court Chambers. I chose the Chambers as the location for our photoshoot.
The Arizona Supreme Court had moved its affairs elsewhere years earlier, to its own building. The Chambers was now a museum inside the state capitol…
