reveals to CNN<\/a> that the Theranos PR team decreed that he was only allowed to shoot group portraits, all of them women scientists in lab coats. <\/p>\n\u201cIt was this really hard pivot to (show) this was a team effort,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen we walked into this space, we realized how much they were trying to control it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Even as Holmes was tried by a federal jury, eventually being convicted of defrauding investors in 2022 (she now resides at the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas), Rasmussen did not tell his story until now. <\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t reveal how long he had his doubts for, but insinuates to CNN that he suspects the entire photo shoot was a sham. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt didn\u2019t seem like a particularly controlled environment,\u201d he recalls of the lab setting. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t kind of expect that the whole thing is a facade. In hindsight, it\u2019s been like, wait a second, was this all a charade?\u201d<\/p>\n
Getting the Shot <\/p>\n
Rasmussen says that he and his assistant Ryan Brown had a crisis meeting at the lab and decided that they were going to get the shot they came for, despite the Theranos PR team insisting that the team of women scientists should be in the shot as well. <\/p>\n
\u201cRyan and I realized we could just use the white window shade as a backdrop. So we set up this whole scene with lights and different setups, a big show to please the PR,\u201d he says on Instagram.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe photographed friendly, corporate-looking scenes, then slowly moved Holmes back, closer and closer to the window. Ryan held up a huge reflector directly behind me to block the PR team\u2019s view, and I kept giving super-specific direction to scientists who weren\u2019t even vaguely in frame.\u201d <\/p>\n
Rasmussen got the shot he wanted: a head-and-shoulders shot of Holmes looking straight down the camera with a \u201clook of quiet desperation\u201d against a white backdrop. <\/p>\n
The photographer says that he eventually received feedback from Theranos, which, unsurprisingly, \u201cwas not good.\u201d <\/p>\n
But he adds that even the PR team wouldn\u2019t have known the full extent of the crisis Theranos was facing during the photo shoot. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think that the level to which everything crumbled, the only person in that room who knew how much it could fall apart was Elizabeth Holmes,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
21\/9 \u2013 Updated with CNN Instagram post.<\/p>\n
Image creditsWikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p>\n Affiliate Disclosure PetaPixel articles may include affiliate links; we may earn a commission if you buy through one. <\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Elizabeth_Holmes_2016-640x800.jpeg\")
Photo from Theranos\u2019 press kit \/ Wikimedia Commons <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790001251_12_maxresdefault.jpg\")
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