Portraits: Yuri Guillen

Yuri Guillen is in charge of one of the largest cigar factories in the world: General Cigar Dominicana, the Santiago-based behemoth that is responsible for making Macanudo, as well as American-bound Cohibas, Partagas and others. He’s held that job since 2008, rising from production supervisor to production manager of the company’s smaller factory and then the larger factory. While Macanudo and Cohiba are the more prominent brands, Guillen is most notably tied to the La Gloria Cubana brand, thanks to his role as part of Team La Gloria, a four-man group General put together after Ernesto Perez-Carrillo Jr., the former owner of the brand, left General in 2009.

This portrait was taken behind Elite Cigar Cafe in Addison, Texas with a Canon 5D MkIII and a 50mm f/1.2 lens set to f/2.5 and 1/400 of a second. The ISO was set at 250 and it was taken in open shade with sunlight being the only light source. The photograph was converted from RAW in Photoshop CC 2014 and converted into black and white using custom actions.

The bio for this post was written by Charlie Minato, the photograph and photography notes are all produced by Brooks Whittington.