Delighted to work with The Virginia Military Institute, capturing staff & cadet portraits. Founded in 1839, Virginia Military Institute (VMI) is the oldest state-supported military college in the United States.

VMI cadets and alumni played instrumental roles in the American Civil War. On 14 occasions, the Confederacy called cadets into active military engagements.

Many VMI Cadets were ordered to Camp Lee, at Richmond, to train recruits under General Stonewall Jackson. VMI alumni were regarded among the best officers of the South and several distinguished themselves in the Union forces as well. Fifteen graduates rose to the rank of general in the Confederate Army, and one rose to this rank in the Union Army. Just before his famous flank attack at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Jackson looked at his division and brigade commanders, noted the high number of VMI graduates and said, "The Institute will be heard from today”.

VMI produced many of America's commanders in World War II. The most important of these was George C. Marshall, the top U.S. Army general during the war. Marshall was the Army's first five-star general and the only career military officer ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Winston Churchill dubbed Marshall the "Architect of Victory" and "the noblest Roman of them all". The Deputy Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army during the war was also a VMI graduate as were the Second U.S. Army commander, 15th U.S. Army commander, the commander of Allied Air Forces of the Southwest Pacific and various corps and division commanders in the Army and Marine Corps. China's General Sun Li-jen, known as the "Rommel of the East", was also a graduate of VMI.

VMI among The United States top undergraduate public liberal arts colleges since 2001. The Institute’s efficacy is well demonstrated by generations of VMI graduates. Among the alumni of VMI are a Nobel Prize winner, 11 Rhodes Scholars, seven Medal of Honor recipients, a Pulitzer Prize winner, college presidents, and generals and flag officers.

No other college in America is so attentive to and so proud of its product: citizen-soldiers prepared both for civilian leadership in their professions and for military leadership in times of national need. VMI graduates have made distinguished contributions both in the military and in fields as diverse as business, engineering, international affairs, medicine, and public policy, often at remarkably young ages. VMI’s multi-faceted program is designed to instill in each cadet the lifelong values of integrity, devotion to duty, self-discipline, and self-reliance.

Based in London, New York & Los Angeles. Rory Lewis is the UK & The United States foremost Military Portraitist Photographer. Rory is regularly commissioned to photograph high profile Military Officers for all four branches of the Military Army, Air Force &  Navy & Marines. 

Portraits are very important to military personal. To be captured in uniform looking ones best and in full finery, can fill one with pride for the service. 

Portraiture is Rory’s speciality, he is just as comfortable working with High Ranking Officers as with NCO’s and Enlisted Personnel. You will find his friendly and professional approach helps put even the most photo-phobic at ease. Discounts Available for Large Groups.