A little more on documentary photography

I wanted to come back to documentary photography once more and just say, never stop watching.  For me, it's a little like hunting ... perhaps. 

I don't go in with a plan beyond the attempt to capture the story.  To tell it true.  I picked up a 3-day documentary shoot, over on Flanders Fields, working with the New Zealanders a few years ago.

The image that follows is one of my favourites and I have to confess, it really was about swinging round and capturing this exquisite moment without thinking too much about settings.  A hongi ... a Maori greeting, was being exchanged. 

I had been traveling in France with the New Zealand veterans the day before and so they knew me a little. The New Zealand London Rugby Club were playing a commemoration match in Zonnebeke. 

Moments like these make documentary photography a big love of mine ...

On Documentary Photography ...

Her photographic work is magnificent and I love her presence: her portraits are stunning, they expose intimacy, humor, and pensiveness; her photographs capture the space, the movement, human interaction deliciously, in a way that one feels invited to an event long after it disappeared from the public scene.

In all her unobtrusiveness when working with the camera, Di is great fun to hang out with, the artists, scholars, thinkers, curators of our Berlin exhibition highly appreciated her, and when working together in Cairo, Istanbul, Berlin, or wherever else, I enjoy her kindness, humor, and delightful presence.

Shulamit Bruckstein, Curator, director of TASWIR projects / ha’atelier

Shulamit wrote this after a series of projects together and, in so many ways, lays out what I want to achieve as a documentary photographer.

I believe I need to be unobtrusive, invisible ... disappearing into the moment I have been asked to capture.  At the same time I believe that there are going to be people I need to engage with.  It's about building trust, if there's time.  It's about being respectful - I want people to enjoy my work afterwards. 

I prefer to wear dark clothes and quiet shoes.  I carry cough drops and tissues.  Nothing about me should stand out or distract people from the event.  I don't make eye contact when I move around ... unless I need to or unless I find a 'favourite'.  A favourite is someone who embodies something of atmosphere ... the event.  And there is always someone.

I love my flash.  It's a Canon Speedlite 580EX II and over the years we've become good friends.  I know how to twist and turn it, to bounce light and avoid shadows.  I work with my favourite lens most of the time, a  Canon EF 70-200mm 1:4L.  Some people get hung up on the latest equipment but I simply love whatever works for me.  This lens is my baby.  Attached to my Canon 5D Mk II ... it's magic.

I prefer to zoom because it allows me to stand back, on the edges, while still getting up close and personal without people realising that it's all about them.

Documentary photography ... unobtrusiveness, respect, the building of trust, connections, communication.  It's all of that and more.  I love it.

Creative People ...

Creative people tend to be both extroverted and introverted. We're usually one or the other, either preferring to be in the thick of crowds or sitting on the sidelines and observing the passing show. In fact, in psychological research, extroversion and introversion are considered the most stable personality traits that differentiate people from each other and that can be reliability measured. Creative individuals, on the other hand, seem to exhibit both traits simultaneously.

Scott Barry Kaufman

I enjoyed this.  Loved the idea that there are 'creativity reasearchers'.  And that I might actually have all these contradictions going on.

In a world that prizes labels, I just couldn't work out how to frame myself.  I might just stop with that framing nonsense now , and get on with the 'being' stuff.

I found the words ...

I believe that our way of 'seeing' the world is as unique as our fingerprint. I believe that the technical elements of photography are simpler than most people realise. With this in mind, I am offering photography workshops, women only.

You will receive a pre-course workbook that invites you to explore and come to know your camera via a series of simple exercises, with virtual assistance from me, if necessary. Then we come together, one-on-one or as part of a very small group, to put those new skills into practice out in the city, to create images that reflect your way of seeing and experiencing the world, and to develop your confidence with your camera.

Contact me.

Photographing People

I've been preparing for the photography workshop in Genova, thinking about all the things I know ... and finding stuff I didn't realise I knew.

When I make notes on portraiture, I include words like Trust and Respect.  Empathy.  Patience.  Engagement. Authenticity.

And it's not about acting or demanding or insisting.

People, when they're being photographed, are often fragile. They feel broken open, exposed, vulnerable.

You're asking them to show a little of their souls, to give you themselves in a relaxed state of being.

People often tell me they photograph badly but no, I think no one 'photographs badly'. I have this theory that it is a failure on the part of the photographer, to relax their client.  To engage.  To earn their trust.

When I work on a portrait shoot, I am almost skinless.  I don't want to be the boss, to be in control, to demand this expression, that pose, this place.

I want to go someplace my client loves.  A space where they can relax and feel comfortable.  I want to talk, and maybe walk a little.  I want to know who they are and how they want to be perceived.   I want to discover and capture their best selves.  The self they know and recognise. 

Sometimes, if it's a family portrait, I have asked the mum for a follow-up shoot alone because when you're a mum and a wife on a family shoot, you can miss out on being you.  Your own private individual you ... before you took on all those roles.

And it works.  I have photographed some beautiful strong confident women when they're off-duty as everything else.

Kids are something else again.  You need to engage, it needs to be fun, you need to be real.  They will know.  Bubbles have saved many a shoot when a child has grown bored or tired. 

Portraiture is all about a lot of things ... and then relaxing and enjoying that time spent together.  It's about gifting someone the beautiful things in them, and everyone has something. 

Love Notes from Sahara

An old ice cream container appeared behind me, outside my office window, yesterday.  It was hanging from a long thin piece of green string.  Little Miss 8 casually asked me if I had noticed that there was 'something' out there.

I looked and found a little love note that had come from the kidlet who lives above me and I replied, then called out to let her know that she had mail too.  She hauled it and and so it continued till bedtime. 

The notes from upstairs always come with small gifts.  A piece of costume jewellery, a perfume-soaked piece of cloth, and there is always another note.

I sent up a beautiful cockle shell from my desk and then later, as a grand finale, a glue stick.  This morning she came down to breakfast bemused ... 'You sent me a glue stick?' 

I did.  Was there a problem, I thought you could maybe use one up there in your room?

This morning, to lure her back upstairs to clean her room, I announced there was mail, having loaded two pieces of green chewing gum and a horse picture to colour into the 'basket'.

I wonder how things will proceed today but I think I'd best take this seriously ... no more glue sticks, for sure.

I photographed the note using the camera in my new phone.  I am cautiously adjusting to the touchscreen and all the other wonders of mobile phones in the 21st century. 

Sunshine and the promise of 16 celsius by Saturday.

Good morning.