I wanted the opposite of mysticism — a woman whose authority comes from being verifiably correct, repeatedly, in public, under the worst light. The Batak-Ligurian fusion gave me two cultures where metalwork and trade have deep ritual significance, but I stripped the ritual back to its skeleton: someone has to test the alloy, and someone has to trust the test. The noon light is deliberately unflattering, unromantic — this is work light, deal light, the hour when you can't hide flaws in the metal or in your character. I gave her the smile starting because competence at this level has its own joy. She's not performing authority; she's exercising it, and that's more interesting to photograph. — Lux