The portrait photographer and the poet.

Out of the blue I received this message:   “My name is David Vintiner and I am photographer based in London. I am about to start a new body of work exploring connection. Over the last few months of lockdown it was the absence of person to person connection that was particularly challenging for me as a portrait photographer.........It was during this time that I decided, when the circumstances allowed, I would embark on a series of twelve portraits where the sitter decided on who I would connect with for the next portrait,.........the idea is to see where the journey leads me and explore the idea of a string of connections. I am contacting you because I would love to ask Lemn Sissay to be the first person I photograph to start me off on this journey. It would then be up to Lemn to decide on who my next sitter should be.”   Have a look on his site in a week to see who is being shot next.   So we did the shoot a couple of days ago. I received the shots today. The first is my favourite but  I am interested in your opinion. Which of the two shots below is the better one?POSTSCRIPT:The project is called twelve and a half portraits