I Might Be a Portrait Photographer

Over the past year or so my focus has shifted toward portraits. For quite some time I viewed portraits as the weak link in my repertoire. Perhaps one reason for this perception is that I like to have a fairly controlled and ideally conceptual scenario to photograph.  Shooting models in an environmental setting allowed me to do that.  In this kind of scenario a model is akin to an actor -- a skilled individual who uses their talent to work toward the common goal of the creative situation.  Often that entails working toward the director's vision.  As the photographer doing self-directed work I was essentially the director.

For a very long time I held the notion that a portrait sitting removed all artifice and artistic constructions and left the photographer alone with the subject.  It was sort of "Photography Unplugged" -- stripped down to the basics. Add to this the fact that the common thread in the world of portrait photography involves the building of rapport with one's subject.  I don't think you can swing a dead cat around the photography blogosphere without knocking down scores of posts on that very subject.  I found this all very intimidating because I felt as a person my greatest weakness was my ability to relate to others, especially strangers.  The whole thing scared the hell out of me.

I can't say that I necessarily pursued portraits as a way to strengthen a weakness.  I think it just sort of happened.  My general interest changed, I grew and matured as a person, and I just gravitated slowly toward portraits.  I have always had a difficult time describing my photography.  I think Avedon said it best (and I paraphrase) that if I could describe it, I would have been a writer.  But nowadays I feel a certain amount of comfort in stating that I'm a portrait photographer.

The really cool part of this is that as I have grown I've been able to relax my view of what exactly a portrait is.  A portrait sitting doesn't have to be a magic act where I try in a very short amount of time to discover and display some fundamental truth about the person I'm photographing.  I'm a photographer not a shaman.  I can build as much artifice and artistic license as I like.  I can build a set or find one that suits my needs.  Everything I do is my choice and an extension of my vision.  I just hope that my subject is willing to dance to my music.

Speaking of which I'd like to thank my friend and neighbor Topher who is shown above for sitting for me.  I've made it a personal goal to try to shoot a formal portrait once every week or two.  I'll be posting more of these as time goes by (I've been doing it for a bit so there's some catching up to do).  But until then, here's another shot of Topher.  Click the pics to see them large.