Who Shot It Better? Derek Jeter: Terry Richardson vs. Gregory Heisler

If you hate the New York Yankees, then take solace in the fact they are 1-3 to start the 2012 season, while we focus on Derek Jeter. In this edition of “Who Shot It Better?” we have two very different magazines and two very different portraiture styles. In the past, people have really gotten riled up! “How can you compare this image to that image?” “What do you mean better?” “This is stupid!”

Listen folks, this is my opinion, and I’m asking for yours. Which image do you like better? Ok, let’s go.

The April 2011 cover of GQ features a fashionable Derek Jeter as photographed by Terry Richardson. Let’s put aside for a moment that Terry has a pretty awful reputation as a human being. That should not cloud our aesthetic judgement of his images. So what do I see? Well, first, I’m glad GQ had a good stylist. If you live in the Tri-state area like I do, then you’ve probably been subjected to years of horrible Derek Jeter/Ford commercials where the wardrobe was suspect at best (Yeah, let’s wear sweat pants to sell trucks. That’s classy.) Ok, that aside, pretty simple Terry Richardson light — straight on and thus not much sculpting. Derek is very photogenic, and he’s striking a nice pose, so I can’t complain about that.

Gregory Heisler’s 2009 Sports Illustrated cover was actually shot in the Bronx next to the subway. How do I know? Because Heisler made a neat video for Profoto. Another great pose by Jeter, and I have to say, I really like the lighting on this portrait. It’s a fairly technical portrait in terms of the number of lights and the types of modifiers, but it doesn’t come off as being overly lit in my opinion.

Verdict? Heisler ftw! I’m a big fan of environmental portraits, and Heisler really nailed this one. Terry’s good at what he does, but it’s not necessarily the best capture out of the two images.