Elizabeth Holmes’ most famous photo started with a simple request from a photographer

• Ethan Pines shot Elizabeth Holmes for a Forbes cover story in 2014.
• The photo of Holmes holding a blood vial has become synonymous with the disgraced Theranos founder.
• Pines spoke to Business Insider about meeting Holmes and his thoughts on “You Can See Everything.”

As photographer Ethan Pines drove to the Theranos offices in Silicon Valley, all he could think about was how to make his shoot with its founder, Elizabeth Holmes, stand out.

It was 2014, and the hype around Holmes’ health technology company, which boasted it could run hundreds of medical and diagnostic tests using only a few drops of blood, had hit its zenith. The 30-year-old Holmes was on the verge of becoming the youngest self-made female billionaire with a net worth of $4.5 billion.

Pines had photographed CEOs before, and he was racking his brain for ways to make the visuals for Holmes’ Forbes cover story memorable.

He never could have predicted that his shot of Holmes would become the symbol of the now-disgraced CEO’s meteoric rise and spectacular fall, not to mention imitated on TV series, put on billboards, and discussed in a popular documentary.

Twelve years later, Pines’ photo of Holmes has re-entered the zeitgeist thanks to Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s hit documentary, “You Can See Everything,” which chronicles the life of Holmes and her partner, Billy Evans, in the final weeks before Holmes reports to prison for defrauding investors.

Pines’ famous shot is brought up several times in the doc. At one point, while having her body scanned to create an AI hologram, Holmes breaks down, recalling how her image has become a symbol of duplicity in the press.

This isn’t the first time Pines’ photo of Holmes has gone viral. The shot was used on the poster for Alex Gibney’s 2019 documentary on Holmes, “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley.” The shot is also re-created in the 2022 Hulu miniseries “The Dropout,” which stars Amanda Seyfried as Holmes. But Pines said “You Can See Everything” has brought an even larger wave attention to his work.

“I posted on my Instagram the entire shoot in a flipbook motion piece, and it has a million views,” Pines said. “My posts don’t get anywhere near that.”

The making of an iconic shot

When Pines arrived on set that day in 2014, he knew he wanted to take photographs that functioned as both a portrait of a young founder and a showcase of her invention.

“In my mind, I pictured a tight shot with her holding something up,” Pines told Business Insider.

Halfway through the shoot, he asked Holmes’ team if there was a suitable object they could use. They obliged with a small vial of blood (well, fake blood; the real stuff, he was told, was in a temperature-controlled lab down the hall).

Once Holmes held the vial up to her face, everything clicked into place.

“Sometimes when you’re shooting, you’re thinking to yourself, ‘This is a gift,'” Pines recalled. “With her big eyes and that intimate, interesting expression, I felt we had something.”

Unlike the typical photoshoot with a CEO, where Pines would only get around 10 to 20 minutes to photograph his subject before they rushed off to attend to other matters, Holmes was generous with her time.

Over a couple hours, Pines said he took a total of 220 shots — 52 of her holding the blood vial — in three different setups. What stood out to him the most was Holmes’ persona. She was relaxed and down to earth, chatting it up with Pines and his assistant. She’d done her own hair and makeup for the shoot.

Pines recognized a similar easy charisma on display in “You Can See Everything.”

“I cannot say if she’s being real in this movie or putting on a facade to Nathan Fielder, but it reminded me of my experience,” he said. “I felt she was really approachable; she’s humble, makes a lot of eye contact, and doesn’t come across as cocky or uptight. Oblivious to everything going on around her.” 

With the doc a hit at the box office, Pines doesn’t think the Holmes hype will die down anytime soon. He’s constantly seeing reminders of his iconic photo.

“I was at a Halloween carnival for my daughter’s school, and there were at least two people dressed as Elizabeth Holmes with the little blood vial,” he said. “The whole thing is a trip.” 

“You Can See Everything” is in theaters now.