An Empty Staircase

I was hired to shoot a group portrait of 38 executives from American Standard (makers of the notorious toilet that Marcel Duchamp placed in a gallery as a "ready made" piece of art.) After an hour of setting up lights and taping down cords, I was told one of the executives had quit. The portrait wasn't needed. They wanted to pay me anyway, so in good faith I asked them if they needed a photograph of the staircase. They didn't.