He was such a powerful voice throughout politics that I didn’t want this thing to read that it was hard for him to stand for sustained periods of time. But the reality was that we were having to go near objects that he could brace himself.

What are the challenges in photographing a politician?

I think politicians are used to being photographed. A lot of politicians are aware of their image and aware of their brands in a way that most people aren’t.

How do you address that?

Representative Cummings was really natural. For him, it was just kind of putting him in a place and giving him direction for what to do with his shoulders or head. He had a fired-up energy about him. He wasn’t unpleasant, but no nonsense.

What do you hope that a portrait will accomplish?

I want it to feel natural and I wanted it to feel like it’s that person and it represents that person to the best of my abilities. Every time I photograph someone, I say: “If I have asked you to do anything that you’re not comfortable with doing, please let me know. At the end of the day, it’s just my name under the photo. It’s your face. This is more about you.”

How much time did you have with Representative Cummings?

I think probably 10 minutes. But I had a lot of time to think about the setting and think about lighting.

The photograph also seems to evoke the historical political portrait.

That was definitely something I was thinking about — making something that kind of felt like a painting, or painterly, and just being able to control the shadows on him. I worked with Elizabeth Herman and Celeste Sloman to photograph 130 lawmakers in the 116th United States Congress. We did that for three days creating these painterly portraits, and a lot of the references for that were paintings.

What are the elements of this portrait that do that?

A lot of it is the setting. We often see politicians behind a podium, or waving on a stage, or kissing a baby’s head — the tropes of portraits. By setting it in a committee room, it strips away a lot of that stuff. It takes away the things that feel modern. If this were in his office you could see a telephone on the desk, or family photographs.