Hamed Shahbazi Session

Great portraits go beyond the ink on the paper or the shiny precious metals lighting up our monitors; it’s an emotional document of a person’s heart and soul. This approach for producing headshots has awarded me the privilege of interviewing outstanding people who are shaping our world. Today, I am writing about Hamed Shahbazi’s headshot session.

Hamed is the founding CEO of TIO Networks, an important financial technology firm, recently sold to Paypal for $304m. In an interview by Business in Vancouver Hamed has dubbed himself as an “impactreneur”, someone who uses entrepreneurship to both innovate and solve problems. During his Art of Headshots session, he revealed what truly mattered to him.

“Circumstances with my Mother is what motivated me to reach out to new levels in business”, explained Hamed during his session. “”you see my mom was my rock and I admire her and my father more than anyone or anything else… When she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and lost her awareness, my greatest fear became true and I became fearless”, continued Shahbazi as I photographed him. “It was the circumstances of the worse possible scenario that taught me to no longer worry about the smaller things in life, which would free me to take risks that I wouldn’t have done in the past. Little things no longer mattered”.

Hamed paused for a minute or two and click, click we found his headshot shown here and everywhere of Vancouver’s latest impactreneur. Reflecting back at his portrait I remember that Hamed, a young man shaping society, is a son first and foremost and it tickles my emotions. Somewhere in another existence his mother is smiling back at him. We can’t physically see her in his portrait but she is a vibrant presence in this headshot, making it more than just ink inside a print or shinier than the precious metals reflecting his image back at you.