Go Behind TIME’s Mark Zuckerberg Cover With Photographer Ian Allen

2 minute read

When a photo shoot doesn’t go according to plan, the “only thing you can do is to rely on what you’ve done in the past,” says Ian Allen. The San Francisco-based photographer had to do just that when TIME assigned him to shoot this week’s magazine cover story, which features Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg.

In early October, Zuckerberg was in India as an ambassador for Internet.org, a global partnership “dedicated to making affordable internet access available to the two thirds of the world not yet connected,” according to Facebook.

“Initially I was supposed to shoot him giving this talk in New Delhi at a conference for Facebook, and then we were going to go to Chandauli, a village in northern India, where it was going to be just him and I, and we would get around one hour to take photos as he wandered around this computer lab.”

But when local police tipped the press off to his imminent arrival, reporters and photographers swarmed the young CEO, and Allen’s hour with Zuckerberg became 45 minutes, then 30 minutes, and then just five minutes. “In this kind of situation, you have to prioritize the things you think will work best and you try to pre-light as much as you can.”

In this particular case, Allen was able to set up his gear in a small concrete room within the local school. “His people shuttle him in that little room and that’s where the cover shot was taken,” he says.

In another portrait of Zuckerberg, this time with kids, Allen also had to deal with local photographers and people who had been tipped of his presence. “Around 250 people showed up. It was a bit chaotic, but the whole time I was just hoping my images were in focus.”

They were.

Ian Allen is a San Francisco-based photographer.

Olivier Laurent is the editor of TIME LightBox. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @olivierclaurent

Facebook Mark Zuckerberg Time Magazine Cover
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg on TIME Magazine's coverPhotograph by Ian Allen for TIME
Mark Zuckerberg in Chandauli
Mark Zuckerberg in Chandauli, a village in India where a new computer center opened this yearIan Allen for TIME
Mark Zuckerberg spoke at an Internet.org conference
Mark Zuckerberg spoke at an Internet.org conference in Delhi in October; later he met with the Indian Prime MinisterIan Allen for TIME
Elementary-school students in Chandauli
Elementary-school students in Chandauli attend class in a building without electricity or running water Ian Allen for TIME
Facebook-internet
Facebook is developing exotic tech­nologies, including drones, satellites and lasers like this one, above, to bring the Internet to the world's most remote regionsIan Allen for TIME

More Must-Reads from TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com