On a recent afternoon in Hell's Kitchen, a pink and orange Chevrolet Step-Van pulled up to the curb. It looked suspiciously like a food truck peddling Miami-fusion tacos, but the only thing cooking inside was a generator, pumping power into a 12-foot photo studio in the back.
It was a "headshot truck," and with its white exposed faux-brick walls, new wooden floor, makeup station, changing area and chair bolted to the floor, the compact studio makes use of every available inch.
The headshots happen in the back, where customers can choose from 14 colored backdrops that unroll like yoga mats. On this day, Adam Hendershott, 33, the truck's owner and lead photographer, snapped shots of Douglas Widick, an actor and a founder of the North Coast Hip-Hop Improv Comedy team who took Hendershott up on his offer of a freebie.
"Lean way forward on your feet like you're Michael Jackson," Hendershott told him. "Chin down."
Pop. Pop. Pop.
The two turned their attention to Widick's image on a large iMac screen nearby. "What's that in my teeth?" he asked, before realizing it was the remnants of the burrito he had eaten for lunch. Take Two.
The Headshot Truck, which arrived in New York two months ago, specializes in portraits for actors, corporate types and anyone else who wants a social media thumbnail that's an upgrade from a selfie.
Packages range from $69 to $700, depending on makeup requirements and how many "looks" a customer wants. The truck also offers Express Days, when companies can reserve its services for a day at a discounted rate.
The business was created two years ago in Los Angeles as a convenient, less expensive alternative to boutique photo studios, which charge as much as $5,000 for a headshot. Clients have included Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Jorge Garcia, who played Hurley on Lost.
The idea came to Hendershott while he was helping a friend move furniture out of a U-Haul. He noticed sunlight on his friend's face and had a brainstorm: Had anyone ever taken headshots in the back of a truck before? Google said no.
Teaming with his business partners, William Harper and Zac Hardy, he bought an old bread truck and raised $25,000 on Kickstarter to revamp it. The truck roamed West Hollywood and Burbank, Calif. It was successful enough to enable the owners to buy out a competitor who started after Hendershott was already up and rolling -- a truck called the Best Little Headshot Truck in Texas, Y'all.
The decision to try their hand in New York was an easy one. "We wanted to be in a city that's as vastly different from L.A. as possible," Harper said. "New York's clientele is much more varied."
Hendershott added: "It seems like people are just more sure of themselves here. In L.A., everybody is looking for that approval of the casting director and the agent. The actors here seem to just come in and go: 'This is who I am. Let's shoot this.'"
Hannah Bush was one such new New York customer. Bush, a dancer, said the industry today requires you to "dabble in everything," so she needed a headshot for jobs like commercial and print modeling. She learned about The Headshot Truck through Actors Connection, an educational and networking studio in the city.
Sitting in the parked truck in Hell's Kitchen last month, she inspected on an iMac screen the photograph that Hendershott had snapped. She wasn't pleased with what she described as her "just came from the beach" look. A brush and some hair mousse remedied the situation.
Hendershott knows show-business types. He was discovered by a talent manager when he was 6 years old, at a Bob's Big Boy restaurant. He appeared as a child actor on Doogie Howser, M.D., Night Court and Roseanne.
He took up photography in his 20s, shooting weddings and headshots and the occasional advertising campaign.
For its New York debut, Hendershott shipped the original Headshot Truck from Los Angeles. Most of it remains the same, but it has been modified slightly. "We added faux brick so it looks like that exposed brick in New York apartments," he said.
Adjusting to city traffic has been a problem. During the trip from a parking lot in Harlem, where the truck is housed for $450 month, to Hell's Kitchen, a cab cut off the truck, causing a neck-brace-worthy stop. Hendershott also was pulled over once for driving his commercial vehicle on FDR Drive.
As the workday came to a close, Julie Grega, whom Hendershott was training, took a turn behind the camera. Her subject, Jeffrey St-Victor, needed headshots to reflect a new, shorter hairstyle. He paid $200 for a one-look photo session with 60 shots, including makeup by Meg Murphy.
St-Victor recently appeared as a background prisoner on The Night Of, the HBO limited series.
"I usually get typecast as the prisoner, pimp or perp, and the funny thing is I have a law degree," he said.
During St-Victor's session, Grega tried to get him to loosen up. "Make a face like you would on your Tinder profile," she said, teasing. St-Victor laughed, and his unguarded moment was captured by Grega, and then appeared on the monitor. Just like that, he had a new headshot.
SundayMonday Business on 10/09/2016