A Point of Contact: January 2015

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Approaching Police Officers - Part 2

Generally, when we approach an officer and ask if we can make a portrait, they are reluctant. They usually feel more comfortable being photographed as a group.

When I photograph a group, I let the members loosely arrange themselves, and then I make small adjustments for the sake of composition. I did this with the police.

What differences do you notice in the demeanor and position choices made by officers in different countries?

Barcelona

Nicaragua

Rome

Madrid

Lisbon

Budapest

When we approached the policeman on the left in this image, we explained, in English, what we wanted and showed him some sample photos of other police officers. He said something in Hungarian to the officers standing near him, and they all burst out laughing. He turned back to us and said, "We're actors, extras, in a Bruce Willis movie being filmed here at the Opera House." We made his image, alongside his son, anyway. After all, they looked authentic."

Monday, January 26, 2015

Proud Dad!

My daughter, Jordanna, who, like her father, is a photographer, has launched a new, unique online gallery venture, "Streit House Space."

Please feel free to visit http://streithousespace.com

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Approaching Police Officers - Part 1

When we encounter police officers anywhere in the world, whether individually or in groups, they are usually reluctant to pose initially. However, we have discovered that with a bit of coaxing, they can usually relax long enough for us to make a decent portrait.

Here is a gallery of officers who agreed to pose by themselves. In Part 2, we'll post police officers who agreed to pose, but only as a group.

Donald - Nicaragua

Faustino - Panama

Harmony - Boston

Marco - Mexico

Rafael - New York City

Simone - Rome

Dave - New York

Reuben - Mexico

Angela - Lisbon

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Learning From Failure

When I make portraits in the street, as a general rule, I only expose two sheets of film. This is something I learned from studying the work of Joel Meyerowitz, who once said, "I need only one or two sheets of film and the patience to see it through." This usually works for me; I am usually pleased with the results.

There are times, however, when I encounter a technical failure, and create a set of negatives that are not useable. That was the case when I photographed Nikki, a striking looking young woman whom we met one afternoon last April. Somehow the negative was significantly underexposed, rendering a print that looked like this:

No amount of manipulation improved the print, so I went to my local lab and asked them to try to "save" the negative. It resulted in a print that distorted and blew out some of the highlights:

While I really like Nikki's presence in front of the camera, the tones and the contrast simply don't work. So I decided to contact Nikki and see if we could make her image again. She graciously agreed, and two months later this was the result:

While the exposure is correct in this second iteration, and the tonal range acceptable, the portrait doesn't connect for me. For me, the subject in a portrait has to move beyond having an "interesting face"; it has to strike me on a visceral level. So the technical foul up notwithstanding, I consider the portrait of Nikki a failure.

What I learned is this: my first encounter with a person, the moment that is visceral, is the moment I want to "know" and capture on film. If that doesn't happen, a second try at a later time is not likely to produce the result I want. A second attempt won't be able to reproduce the feeling of the first. I learned to detach my disappointment and let go.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Approaching Strangers 5 - Hair Stories, Completed

Here is a final group of people approached and asked to pose because of their hair. These 12 portraits were all made against a white seamless background set up in the street: