Portraits: Terence Reilly

Terence Reilly long boasted about how he did not have a title. The story goes that Manuel “Manolo” Quesada Jr., Reilly’s uncle, did not believe in them because if he asked anyone to sweep the floor, he expected them to sweep the floor. Earlier this year, SAG Imports rebranded itself, and as such, Reilly got a title—general manager of Quesada Cigars.

Reilly is part of a new generation of Quesadas—one that includes Esther, Patricia, Raquel Quesada and Hostos Fernandez Quesada. Combined they are known as the fifth generation or Q5, although Reilly is notably different. For starters, his name looks a bit different. Secondly, Reilly is responsible for overseeing the family’s U.S. distribution operations and as such lives in the U.S., as opposed to the Dominican Republic, home to the rest of Q5.

This photograph was taken using a Canon 1D Mark III and a 24mm  f/1.4 lens at  f/1.4. The shutter speed was 1/60 second at ISO 800. There were two main sources of light: ambient incandescent light from the store and two video lights lighting his face and cigar. The photograph was color corrected in Adobe Lightroom and converted into black and white using a custom action in Adobe Photoshop CS6.

Editor’s Note: This series was once known as Icons of Cigars, a name Brooks Whittington used when at Smoking Stogie. Unfortunately, the name, along with the first few subjects, portrayed an idea behind the series that was not true.

In fact, when halfwheel was first starting, I was a bit confused as Brooks explained to me his intention behind the series. It was not supposed to be a who’s who of the cigar industry personalities, rather, portraits of people whose work matters in the cigar business.

In addition, one other change will take place going forward. Brooks is no longer writing the bios of subjects, I am. He will continue to provide the explanation of the photographs themselves, and of course—take the pictures. — Charlie Minato.