have great compassion for my doctor, my dentist and my proctologist. I’m a portrait photographer, so I know what it’s like to greet clients with fear in their eyes. My greatest success, and my greatest joy, is when they leave relaxed, and perhaps a bit transformed.
After 30 years and millions of exposures, I remain obsessed with creating empowering experiences with the subjects I view through the lens. The elusive goal: to reinvent the traditional relationship of photographer-subject, as something less passive, more active and collaborative. I want my subjects to walk away restored.
Behind the lens, I play many roles: standup comic, therapist, life coach. Humor and empathy are in my tool kit along with the filters and light meter. There is no “one size fits all” approach to portraiture. The sessions ultimately come down to the moment, myself and my subjects, and the process, communicating clearly, building trust expeditiously and encouraging collaboration and input. There is also the added “x” factor: the accident or surprise that occurs during a shoot. How you incorporate this unscripted event may very well be the most important element for success.
Let’s walk through a small gallery of photos I’ve made throughout the years.
Senator Kamala Harris pointed in mock anger toward me: “No Charlie’s Angels. Don’t go there! Maybe someday when I’m not running for public office, but not now.” She turned toward her sister, Maya Harris, and burst out laughing. Maya and her husband, Tony West, looked sheepishly at the camera. The resulting image captured an in-between moment, unplanned, instantaneous, perfect. I had created a friendly shooting space, then made a ridiculous request to provoke a response, and the results were delightful.
To this day I am clueless about how I persuaded him to pose. You’ve read of mothers lifting cars to free their children. Or soldiers on the battlefield saving their comrades against impossible odds. I was in one of those zones.
I held up my film camera and told Peters to pull back his jacket Clark Kent-style and reveal the word WOW on his chest. I then told him to shout out the words “ F— You!” He tentatively complied and I fired off a shot. I told him to repeat the action, louder this time. “F—You!!!” Then softer. A total of 36 exposures, 36 poses, 36 expletives.
Peters sat back in his chair, exhausted but smiling. I felt exultant and a bit bewildered with myself. My approach had been born of desperation and intuition. The strategy of channeling his anger had not been planned. Something in that moment led me to believe that this unorthodox approach might work. My instincts were the basis for decision making.
Of course, the final image is important. But I value even more the human interaction and interplay during the session. In the words of Maya Angelou, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Photo by Virginie Manichon
Photo by Virginie Manichon