ASSIGNMENT ONE:
Photograph a Stranger.
Criteria:
- The person should be unknown to you.
- It can be a street portrait, studio portrait or environmental portrait.
- The portrait should be simply lit.
- Tell us a little bit about the person – through the image and the caption.
- Tell us how you approached and worked with the subject(s) for the project.
Photographing someone you don’t know can be a scary proposition for many of us. I am fairly shy, or at least not that comfortable with walking up to someone and striking up a conversation. I usually will not do that.
UNLESS… I have my camera around my neck or in my hand. When I am ‘a photographer’ I can easily and without hesitation walk up to people and ask to make their picture. I do it a lot, actually.
You see, the camera gives me cover. The camera makes it about the photograph, not me. The camera is both a shield and a passport to meeting people.
In the photograph above, I saw this guy sitting on the cold pier with his 6-pack and I walked right over to him. I smiled and introduced myself, told him I liked his beard and his lunch and asked if I could make a few photographs. He smiled and agreed and I brought some lights over and set them up.
All the while we were chatting about the weather and how it had affected the fishing that week. He told us about having three boats sink under him and how he had great respect for the sea.
I got my shots and met a very cool guy. It also gave me an idea for a project we complete in another city.
NOTE: It is important that you understand this is not a ‘street portrait” or a ‘voyeuristic’ portrait where the subject does not know you are taking their photograph. I want you to engage the stranger, put them in proper light and make your shot. MAKE your shot. While many of us do quick and simple portraits of strangers, I want this to be one that you create – quickly. In other words, this is not a ‘grab shot’ scenario.
Here are some links and videos to get your imaginations going. (Oh, and to that little voice that holds you back from walking up to someone you don’t know… tell that little voice to go away, you are a photographer and this must be done. Period.)
Here is Lee Friedlander’s wonderful book: America by Car:
There are many portraits of strangers interspersed with the shots from his car.
Watch Mark Cohen at work:
Not my style at all, but he gets some pretty interesting photographs. If this kind of portraiture appeals to you, here is how Mark does it.
Joel Meyorowitz:
One of my favorite photographers is Eliott Erwitt. See his work here. Lots of photographs of strangers with a very humanistic and humorous approach.
Here is Ian Berry in Rome.
Which of these photographers do you identify with in the specific “Photographing a Stranger” assignment?
Eric Mcnatt Photographer
Eric Ogden
Dawoud Bey
David Eustace
Richard Rinaldi
Matt Dutile makes wonderful portraits of people he meets on his travels. Here is an interview with him where he discusses travel photography and making portraits, not street grabs, of the people he meets.
Robert Frank photographed the people he met… strangers. His book, “The Americans” was a landmark collection of photography and he influenced countless photographers in the ‘street’ photography genre. Here is a link to his images and this is the book to add to you collection of important photographic books.
And remember this is NOT street photography. I want the subject to be involved with you. In fact I challenge you to use only a 28MM, 35mm, or 50MM lens on your camera (note: these are relative to a full frame camera).
This is a portrait, not a candid. Get in close, engage the subject and catch them engaging US the viewer. Photos that are shot without the subject’s consent are candids or “street photography” – this is calling for you to make a portrait and BE engaged with them.
Here are some beautiful portraits of strangers from the last class:
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- Annie Hong Photographed by Sam Breach All Rights Reserved 2015 P52 2015 Project 52 Conceptual Portrait
Hi Don.
Can you define simple lighting please. The only reason I ask, is that we have a new member in our small rural community, a disabled lady who bombs around our extremely narrow roads on her mobility scooter taking the dog for a run. I had it in the back of mind a while back to invite her down to my studio shed to photograph. I was also going to inject some props with her approval if she was up for a photographic session. Does this fit into your remit? Thanks.
That sounds perfect.
I want to share a photographer who does exactly what this assignment is asking for. Ed knows every one of his subjects. I have loved his work from the first time I saw. http://www.edvatza.com
Hi Don, looking forward to studying under you. I’m a long time fan. My question is this; Are instructions listed anywhere on how and where these images are to be posted? I couldn’t find anything or did I miss it? Thanks.
Hi and thanks.
Yes, we will go over that process at our first webinar.
It’s easy, but I want to make sure we are all on the same page.
— don
Thank you. I look forward to our first meeting.
I cannot access the assignment page it just brings me to this page where it tells me that this is the premium acct restricted, pleasse advise
Don,
Are there size and format requirements for this project?
Absent those parameters, there are none.
I will always let you know size/aspect ratio/presentation when they are part of the assignment. Watch for Assignment Four for an example.
Don,
I tried uploading my assignment, I selected Friday morning, my image and then hit submit image, but got this “No Results Found The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.”
Am I doing something wrong? Did my upload work?
Yep.
It was indeed uploaded.
You didn’t do anything wrong.
Do you want just the image uploaded? How do you want the information about the person to be shared?
I loved the interview with Matt. I think he goes on the “photographers I want to be when I grow up” list.
Don,
If we uploaded an image for an assignment and then later decided we liked a different one more, can we upload the second one too?
Yes. If you name it the same it should overwrite the other images. So that will be fine.
Don, you said the you wanted us to tell a little about the person in the image and caption. Is that something we will do in the review session? Not sure how that could be done with the photo submission itself.
The link above for Dawoud Bey seems to be broken. I’m finding this
http://whatsgoingon-dawoudbeysblog.blogspot.com/
Anyone finding a better site?