About this piece: I wanted to emphasize her eyes and her expression while exploring a level of detail that few people ever get to see. The “nanotainer” in her hand seems even more odd now that the world knows the technology didn’t work.

About the shoot: When I photographed Holmes for the Forbes 400 cover, she was the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world. A year later, Forbes estimated her net worth at zero. And now she’s on trial.

What struck me was how accessible she was. I’ve photographed many tech CEOs, and no one gives you two hours of time like she did. She was polite, genuine and friendly. She asked about me and my crew. She did her own hair and makeup. She barely had her publicist around. She took direction and avoided the power poses that Forbes shoots tend to attract. She was a dream subject. I asked her to relax her face and just look into the camera, and we got that now infamous stare.

While these images began as portraits of a young Silicon Valley visionary, I now feel they’re indicative of this entire era in tech: the fake-it-till-you-make-it ethos, the desire to believe in visionaries and saviors, the often-accompanying market mania.