Portraiture with Depth 2: Recognising self in the subject

As mentioned recently,  I've put together a series of articles from my presentation in December at Art of Light Studios in Sydney. This is the first of those articles.

Timing and Self!

This was one of the super important things I learnt that helped me move forward as a portrait photographer.

My earlier  portrait work was a quiet introspective and deepish look into the subject and then this developed into other views which were driven by the need to expand and challenge myself as a photographer.

Being a portrait photographer, I take the same approach of Annie Lebowitz -” present yourself - let me see something of yourself so that I can learn something about you”.  Stay open.  Stay without rules and structure because you don't ever know what anyone will reveal to you until shoot time.

To be a good portraitist you need to be able to read people well, read their emotions, their signs. The most I can do is to create a vibe, create an environment where the model feels as free as possible to express themselves.

It’s NOT about “showing the true soul of the sitter” - the ”essence of the person” 🤮That’s bullshit as far as I know. 

Any portrait can only reflect what’s happening between the subject and the photographer, the vibe, the atmosphere, and mood - and within that the image shows aspects of the subject that REFLECT things about the photographer - like an intersection of aspects of me and aspects of the subject. 

Because - what happens in the subject, what they are doing, saying, how they are standing, how they are expressing themselves, their poise, attitude, WHAT they are expressing - is about me, not so much about them. It is all those things I just mentioned that determine for me WHEN I hit the shutter (timing!) and that’s the most important aspect to me as a portrait photographer that took me some time to learn.

Example

The best realisation of what I’m saying happened during a one-on-one workshop that I ran sometime ago. Myself and my client were shooting the same model, in the same light, same situation, and she was going through some moves and expressions. You would think we would have ended up with the same or very similar images but in fact they were VERY different and the results had nothing to do with anything technical (my client was technically very proficient) - the results had to do with me being able to identify very quickly some things the model was doing that really resonated with ME - whereas my client couldn’t really connect his own being and self and space, with that of the model - his images lacked depth because he wasn’t truly connecting with the model NOR himself - he was distant from her and from himself  - like in another “technical photographer” reality, and so the moments he was tripping the shutter were not inspired by something in the air between the two of them that resonated with his gut.

Process suggestions

1. Abandon all structure except thinking about light and where you'll shoot the subject. Start the shoot by talking with the subject. Get a rapport going, a vibe. If you have a decent portfolio and you've chosen the right subject, they won't need to know rubbish like what genre you want to shoot etc. They will hopefully trust you as a good photographer who's been around.

2. Start shooting with digital. Get a few shots you know they'll like initially so they feel more at ease. 

3. Encourage the model to move and you move also. This is the crucial part. Inside, you are centred and cognisant of your feelings and how they might intersect with those of the subject. You are like a hunter, hunting for the moment in which to hit the shutter. Hitting the shutter is only triggered by some kind of realisation from inside yourself. This is the magic part that no words can illuminate and it will be different for every photographer but if you're true to yourself then your images will reflect something about you and have some depth about them.

4. Editing: When you go to edit the images, sometimes you'll see more clearly whatever it was that made you hit the shutter. Bring that vibe out with the edit, don't always go for the same type of edit, be adventurous here and experiment until you see clearly what it is about the image that gets you excited.

To find the whole series of these Portraiture with Depth articles, just hit the tag portraiture with depth.