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

The iconic 2014 photo of Elizabeth Holmes shot by Ethan Pines. Ethan Pines/Forbes Collection/Contour by Getty Images

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.…