Portraiture with Depth 1: Lessons learned and personal challenges

This was the 4th of 7 short videos I put together for my presentation, given at Art of Light Studios in Balmain, Sydney. 

This video shows what I'd call my "journey" in photography over the last 8 years or so.  Essentially, it represents the main areas where I've challenged myself to extend out of my comfort zone, those being:

This is what I said to myself: "If you call yourself a portrait photographer and say that you see beauty everywhere, why is it that your subjects are ALL white female models between the ages of 18 and 30 who's appearance conforms to the social norms that define traditional beauty?"

"All white models..." = never been racist, but why always white?
"All female models" = gender bias
"Between the ages of 18 and 30" = ageist

GENDER

So I decided to take it a step at a time and firstly, shoot some men. I looked for some male models and found a few who I photographed but then found the lack of male models made it harder to continue. So I started asking models I worked with if they wouldn't mind bringing their boyfriend along to the shoot so I could photograph them. This also had a side benefit in that I often photographed the model and her boyfriend together, as a couple - and that was something new and challenging for me. I also started photographing myself.

The next stage of this part of the journey involved shooting transgender people. I had one person approach me and the others I photographed were either friends of friends or I found them on Instagram.

COLOUR

A no-brainer. Shoot some other colour than white.

SEXUALITY

I deliberately made an effort to shoot some gay people, these were either friends, or friends of friends. There were also some poly people in there.

LIFE

I started shooting a more documentary style during my travels and became increasingly interested in the challenge of shooting very brief moments of reality.

Please watch full screen on a desktop or better still on a large TV screen with good sound turned up LOUD!

Music by Fabrizio Paterlini (one of my favourite composers) - "Wind Song".

The video is here and the first 20 seconds or so is silent without music and depicts a big change in direction from the first few shots of Anne Duffy (shots like this became so easy they became boring) to the group of scruffy friends and their chook in their backyard in Melbourne.

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