“Richard Branson…on Necker Island…in a Spacesuit…”

That was the pitch from Time Magazine deputy photo editor Dietmar Liz-Lepiorz. As pitches go, that was as good of a pitch as I’ve heard. But to be honest, he had me at Branson…

Richard Branson is the type of subject every photographer simply loves. He gets a good concept when he hears one.

So when Time Magazine suggested putting him in a spacesuit for a story about his new Virgin Galactic space flights, he was immediately onboard. While Dietmar and Los Angeles photo editor Martha Bardach were arranging for the suit to be shipped to the Caribbean, we were off to Branson’s private island Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands.

We were up before the sun on the Christmas eve taking a boat out to a little spit of sand in the Caribbean just off Necker Island. Branson donned the spacesuit right as the sun began to break the horizon. There is something very heroic about the dawn’s first light…well at least if you happen to be photographing a guy is a spacesuit…