'I don't want people to feel at ease'

After my various attempts to get my portrait models to relax while I took their pictures by chatting to them..conversations that ranged over any topic that  I thought might result in an particular range of expressions, I was amused to read about the approach that Lord Snowdon adopted. To quote one of the finest portrait British photographers interviewed by the Telegraph in 2010:

'I'm not a great one for chatting people up becasue it's phoney.I don't want people to feel at ease. There are quite long, agonised silences.I love it. Something strange might happen'


Where did I find this gem of  quote? In my latest copy of Black+White Photography journal highlighted the exhibition 'Snowdon : A life in view' at the national Portrait Gallery as their exhibition of the month. I shall be checking the exhibition next time I'm in London. It seems to offer a selection of images providing an intriguing mix of styles - some images classically posed and lit while others of artists in their studios are looser in composition. A few examples below...

Nell Dunn,1982

Article by :
Evans,Anne Bonita. (2014) Exhibition of the Month.Black+ White Photography.172, pp22-23

Je suis Charlie

Amongst the many images in the press since yesterday capturing the response to the Paris attack, I found this image on the Guardian website taken by Valery Hache the most moving :

Valery Hache / AFP / Getty Images

I think the photographer captures a mix of emotions very well...it leaves a lingering image in the mind..

Exercise : Experimenting with light...

Finding myself a little limited in access to models at the moment,I am using Terry again.. And in trying to find a range of different lighting effects, I started this exercise last November while on holiday in Lanzerote...at least reasonably confident that I would find some hot sun and dry weather.

P755:F5.6 @ 1/60  40mm  ISO 200

P755 above was taken late morning under a shelter open to the air which provided a slightly diffused light..Contrast with P754 below taken later in the middle of the day in direct sunlight against a white wall covered with graffiti..harsher shadow..

P754:F6.3 @ 1/100  128mm  ISO 100

Back at home outdoors in the garden, the weather more seasonable and shooting from a different angle ...P753

P753 : F2.8 @ 1/400 40mm  ISO 100

Good capture of the shape and planes of the face...coming from a combination of the angle of the light on the face and direction of shot from below.

P757: F5.6 @ 1/60  40mm  ISO 200

Example of sunlight diffused through a venetian blind ..in P757 above the shadows are not so dark that they obscure detail but enhance the detail of the face. Tried this with Terry looking the other way  i.e the sunlight coming from behind...P756 below:

P756: F5.6 @ 1/60  40mm  ISO200

Taken on the same day and same time i.e. mid morning...apart from the light bars on the back of the head (!) the angle gives a crisper definition of lines with the light edging the face from Terry's right..a slightly harsher impression which I guess my model might not like as much as P757 which is softer and perhaps more flattering..

P758: F5 @ 1/6  51mm  ISO 3200

P758 above was an attempt to take an image lit only by torchlight!! Interestingly the angle of light gives shadow definition but also allows the eyes to be seen...might revisit this approach for my assignment..

Lastly, P759 the image that didn't quite work out.....I saw the effect that a Kindle lit by an attached mini torch had on the reader's face....a good idea which was let down technically and due to lack of available tripod..again, need to revisit this to see if I can actually capture what I could see in front of me!!

P759: F3.5 @ 0.3sec  40mm  ISO 3200

Scary and definitely not flattering to the model...but it does throw up the shape and planes of the face..