Our first assignment is what I call the “eat the frog first” assignment. (If you have to eat a frog at the meal presented to you, eat the frog first gets the worst out of the way and you can enjoy the rest of the meal.) Works the same in most other areas of life.
For many of us asking a stranger to make a photograph is one of the hardest things we can ever do. So we are doing that first.
That way, when you have to do something else that may seem hard, you have gotten the scariest thing out of the way.
Psychology… it’s a beautiful thing.
REAL LIFE ASSIGNMENT:
One of the most fun assignments I got after moving to LA was for the Long Beach newspaper. They gave me the assignment to shoot 12 people reading the newspaper for use on bus boards, billboards, and ads. Catch was they had to be real readers of the newspaper and found ‘randomly’ in the town of Long Beach.
My job was to approach regular folks, ask them if they read the paper, then ask them to pose for me in front of a white background with a current issue of the paper in front of them (like they were reading it).
I used open shade and a small seamless for my ‘set’ and shot them right where we found them. If I remember right, we gave each of them a $50 Gift Certificate to a local mall. All signed releases.
The job terrified me. Walking up to strangers and asking for a portrait, with a backdrop, holding a paper, and signing a long release was a bit out of my comfort zone.
But I was also committed to doing what I had to do to build my business, so out to the streets of Long Beach I went.
We won a local ad award for that campaign, and it helped me land more of these ‘real people’ sorts of gigs.
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.
But with the camera around my neck, I can deflect the rejection as being not at me, but at the ‘photographer’.
I become a ‘different’ person – a persona so to speak.
Make a photograph of the stranger, not a ‘grab shot’ or a ‘street’ shot, but something more akin to the “Humans of New York”. The person should know they are being photographed and participate in the image by doing something, or with some flair.
Which of these photographers do you identify within the specific “Photographing a Stranger” assignment?
Eric Mcnatt Photographer
Eric Ogden
Dawoud Bey
David Eustace
Richard Rinaldi
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 your collection of important photographic books.
STUDENT GALLERY
Wednesday Morning
Wednesday Evening
Saturday Makeup
Good reference videos, Don. Thanks for posting them. I thought the contrast between the first and second LA videos was interesting. Easy to see a different level of comfort in the second. I’ve been a fan of Brandon’s project and similar for a while. I also thought this video of his was interesting. He explains how he began and what it took for him to overcome some fears I think a lot of folks would have in doing this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IGep_7OOgQ
Hi Don,
I’d like to introduce everyone to my new friend Steve. Steve manages one of the local pizza shops that my son loved going to while he still lives at home. I had never met Steve before I made this image. I introduced myself, explained that I was taking a course, and asked if I could make a picture. Steve very graciously agreed.
This was shot at:
ISO 5000
SS 1/1000 sec
f 3.2
Focal length 24mm
Hi Don,
I’m guessing this is where I should have posted a title or caption for my assignment one photo. If so, my caption for the photo of Larry, the Dunkin doughnut shop employee, would be “Doughnuts so delicious they’ll put a smile on your face!”
Camila is 20 years old. She was born and raised in Argentina until she was 12 when her parents moved to Miami. She says her parents came here with nothing and she watched them work for everything they have so she believes in hard work. She did not want to come the the US, but has adjusted. She hated English but knew she had to speak it so she told all her friends to only speak English to her. She speaks perfect English full of native colloquialisms. She just moved to Orlando 2 weeks ago. She is a canvasser for the Nature Conservancy. She was on the street working, soliciting donations. She asked if I had a minute and I said I would listen to her spiel if I could take her picture. We talked a lot during her fund raising pitch. She’s very vivacious and used to do some modeling but said she learned the way to get ahead in the Miami modeling scene was to sleep your way to the top, and she wasn’t going to do that. I donated to her cause and she modeled for me. She has friends who want pics, so there’s a chance some work could come from this!
Man and Father > Jan’s from Amsterdam working for a Dutch owned company with an office in Detroit. He had not seen his wife and son for six weeks. They were touring the downtown area for the first time. He asked me not to photograph his face so I went with this shot of him looking at the business directory.