On a Saturday afternoon in late March, I visited Ehrlich Steinberg on Santa Monica Boulevard. I brought my camera equipment and I photographed Ace Ehrlich and Tabitha Steinberg. They knew I was coming. We started with Tabitha in the office upstairs. I set up my equipment on one side of the small room while she stood at the other. She had brought several outfit changes and I think I had told her to try a different blazer with the grey skirt she had on. At one point I looked up from my camera bag and her top was off and she was standing there in her skirt and her sheer bra and it looked amazing. She seemed okay or more than okay with me taking her picture like that so I did.

Then I went back downstairs and photographed Ace, after he had gotten back from grabbing lunch. I told him to stand in the main gallery space. We attempted a few angles but the one with the stairs at his back worked best. I asked if he would consider tucking in his shirt and he said he doesn’t really wear it that way, but still obliged. It didn’t look right. He fetched his favorite black jacket and put it on and we did a few like that. I liked that his watch showed when he crossed his arms and that he knows how to hit a very casual contrapposto. He smiled a lot and with ease. I knew we had the shot after only a few tries.

I found two white lacquered frames at an estate sale in Santa Ana. I took them down from the wall where they hung, in a carpeted hallway. A few days later, I found a larger baby blue lacquer frame at another estate sale closer to Anaheim, featuring a reproduction of a painted seaside scene. It depicts an empty Adirondack chair stationed on the edge of a beachside porch. The chair faces away from us, towards a tranquil ocean, and casts a long shadow to its left across the porch’s wide, wooden decking. A pair of wicker chairs and a table sit empty on the other side of the porch. My guess is that it’s mid-morning rather than early dusk.

- Juliana Halpert, 2026