Celeb Photographer Misan Harriman 'Can't Process' Oscar Nomination (Exclusive) - PEOPLE

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Although he’s been photographing celebrities for years, Misan Harriman still can't believe he's entered a new Hollywood inner circle: nominated for an Academy Award for his debut film as a writer-director. 

“I can't process any of this,” admits Harriman, 46, in an exclusive conversation with PEOPLE. “This part of the journey, it's hard for me to articulate.”

He pauses, remembering hearing the news that he will forever be known as an Oscar nominee. “I watched [the announcement] with my wife. I struggle with self-doubt and imposter syndrome. And every part of my being was saying, ‘We're not going to make it. Why are you even here?’”

Netflix’s 18-minute film The After, starring David Oyelowo and co-written by Harriman and John Julius Schwabach with Harriman behind the camera, came up first in the alphabetically announced contenders for Best Live-Action Short on Jan. 23. “I was speechless — couldn't speak,” he recalls tearfully. 

The Nigeria-born Harriman has served as portrait photographer for some of the world’s biggest stars, including Rihanna, Cate Blanchett, Tom Cruise and — his close friends — Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. (He is the artist behind photographs of their two children, 4-year-old son Prince Archie and 2-year-old daughter Princess Lilibet.) 

He also has the distinction of being the first Black person to shoot a cover of British Vogue in the magazine’s 104-year history when he captured images of people participating in the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. As Harriman tells PEOPLE, his values and beliefs are never far from his mind when creating art. 

“Portraiture for me, whether it is royalty or whether I'm in the tip of the spear in any of the civil rights movements that I care deeply about, is looking for truth,” he explains. “That's fundamentally why my lens is there, to capture the human condition in full fidelity.”

Amelie Dokubo and David Oyelowo in "The After".

Netflix

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The same mission applied to his first time working with moving images, says Harriman. The seeds of The After were planted in the wake of Black Lives Matter’s resurgence in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

But during its development, Harriman and Schwabach began zeroing in especially on grief. “Yes, it was 2020,” he acknowledges of the film’s origins. “But I think there are other parts of it, which must be people that I've lost, parts of me that I'm still scared to look at.”

Noting that depression and suicide rates are now at all-time highs, Harriman says that the film became a response to the fact that “we are not okay” collectively. “We're going to use art to try and help people either recognize that it's okay not to be okay, or to go on the journey of healing.”

Oyelowo stars in The After as Dayo, an ordinary man whose life is suddenly upended by a random act of sadistic violence. Later, an equally random gesture of kindness helps open the cab driver to his immeasurable grief. 

(Left-right:) David Oyelowo, Misan Harriman and Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, at a screening of "The After" in 2023.

Emma McIntyre/Getty

As a father of two young daughters, Harriman tells PEOPLE, “I'm just aware that we have to start wearing our vulnerability with pride. It's what makes us human… If you look at the world right now, we need to find a way to build bridges.”

Just as with his photography, Harriman believes in the power of film storytelling to connect audiences with that essential humanity. It helps, he adds, to collaborate with Oyelowo, “one of the great actors of our time” — who he cast via Instagram. 

“I don't personally call it acting,” Harriman says of the British star’s performance. “I think what he did was something more sacred, more precious than any of that. We were observing unfiltered humanity.”

The overwhelmingly positive response to The After — not to mention its accolades — confirms for Harriman that audiences need such storytelling. “A lot of us, when something really gets to us, when a piece of music or a film climbs inside of you, it can do more than years of therapy.”

The After is streaming now on Netflix.

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Celeb Photographer Misan Harriman 'Can't Process' Oscar Nomination (Exclusive) - PEOPLE
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