Category: Assignment 1

These two portraits were taken on the same day but did not make it into my final selection.

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This was the first portrait I took that day and I think it definitely shows. The couple were from Colombia and I’m not sure they really understood what I was asking of them. I remember the gentleman looking at his partner with a look of confusion on his face and this made me feel very anxious, which ultimately led me to producing some rushed images’. So much so, I forgot to place them with the castle in the background – an important factor within my portraits. Regarding technical aspects, this was the period when I was experimenting with different focal lengths and this image wasn’t consistent with the others I took that day. Compositionally, I don’t think the subjects are well placed within the frame, and as a result, the image looks rather compact. Also, this is the only portrait where the stranger’s appear uncomfortable, more so in their facial expressions, and to be honest, I don’t think they enjoyed the process.

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This couple, from Wigan (technically not foreign) were absolutely lovely and had no qualms with me taking their portrait. I actually really like this image, but unfortunately there was only one reason it didn’t make my final selection. It’s a small thing that maybe only I would notice, but I think the ladies bag slightly affects the composition. Even though they are dead centre within the frame, the image as a whole appears unbalanced, due to the fact the bag is protruding too much into the negative space to her right side. With more experience, I may have spotted this and instructed her to place it to one side before taking their portrait.

I must admit that this is an assignment that I’ve been dreading as it requires me to approach, talk to and photograph total strangers. I’m not a shy person, but certainly lack confidence when talking to people I’ve never met. When it comes to photographing individuals, I would rather do it from a far and without them knowing. From memory, I believe I have only ever asked three people if I could photograph them – they were all foreigners’. I found that by not being able to communicate with them verbally, the process was a lot easier and perhaps more natural, in regards to their mannerisms and expressions. The fact that I was unable to give them ‘direction’ meant their response to being photographed seemed organic.

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Struggling to think of an ‘ice breaker’ I can use on these strangers’, perhaps this is an approach I should adopt for this assignment. A possible theme could be based around foreigners’ visiting Edinburgh – the city I reside in. However, being able to communicate their nationality to the viewer may prove to be difficult. One idea I have, is to use the GPS coordinates – specifically related to the city or town the subject is from – as a reference, which would support their portrait. I feel by using this method, there would still be some ambiguity surrounding each image, allowing room for interpretation by the viewer. I feel this method would be best suited as a ‘typology’ series, as each portrait will contain different, but relatable information. Having done some extensive research into photography projects using GPS coordinates, specifically related to portraiture, I’ve been unable to find anything documented. Perhaps, though, it would be more beneficial for my photographic development and confidence, if I were to bite the bullet, so to speak, and not specifically approach those who I believe to be foreign.

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I have been doing a lot of research into Scottish photographer, Niall McDiarmid. His photography style incorporates documenting both the people and landscape of Great Britain and I feel his chosen practices, specifically surrounding his portraiture, are ones which I could apply within this assignment. The first thing I noticed when reviewing his portraits are how colourful and vibrant they are which, according to McDiarmid, “developed naturally”. Not only are the individuals’ clothing brightly coloured, but the intentionally chosen backgrounds are also, resulting in two or more subjects that often complement each other. McDiarmid has a desire to move away from photographing the “greys and muted tones that are so often associated with Great Britain” and I think that statement is certainly true in relation to where I live, especially at this time of year. I could adopt McDiarmid’s methodology and create vivid portraits, incorporating other important elements regularly seen in his work – shapes and textures – that are depicted as being in total contrast to what the individual is wearing. This I feel would work best as a typology series, with the underlying theme being ‘colour’.

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McDiarmid, also seems to have a natural talent for intentionally including objects in his portraits, which mimics a specific part of his subjects’ clothing. This is subtle, and only when the viewer studies the image as a whole, is it then realised. I’m not entirely sure what this technique is called, but it works incredibly well and is one I’m considering for this assignment. I think, though, this idea would be the hardest to achieve, as scenarios where both the individual and object are naturally placed together in unison, could be few and far between and with the limited time I have to photograph my subjects’, it could be an unrealistic undertaking.

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I have been watching a lot of videos on YouTube on how to successfully photograph strangers’. I’m not interested in the photographic techniques they use and their final results, per say, but rather how they approach and interact with the individuals’. I’ve actually found the information to be incredibly useful and have noted down a number of key points which I plan to use when photographing my subjects’.

• Be friendly and explain what I’m doing (I think I’ll say something along the lines of “I’m a photography student and currently doing a project where I need to take a portrait of a stranger. Would you be happy if I took yours?”)
• If they say “No”, thank them anyway and move on.
• Don’t have my camera visible when I approach them, as they may get intimidated.
• Take a few photographs only (This is beneficial for two reasons. 1) Makes the experience less daunting and time consuming for your subjects’. 2) I will have a number of images of the same individual to choose from for my final selection).
• Give the subject some direction, if possible (It will make the process easier and more fun for them).
• Offer to send your portrait to the subjects’ (I think this is a great way to show your appreciation for their time and will be a nice memory for them).

In addition to this, I realise the importance of taking more than the required amount of portraits, which in this case is five. There is always the possibility that one of my images won’t be good enough for my final selection and to have alternative options available could prove to be helpful. Also, I will not be limiting myself to how many individuals’ feature within a single image. Some may argue that if I’m creating a typology series, the number of people seen within each portrait should possibly be the same throughout, but I would disagree. I feel that this point is irrelevant and shouldn’t be treated as being more important than the actual ‘types’ I wish to explore.

Today I was in town with my family and happened to have my camera with me. I was mainly taking snapshots of them and had no intention of photographing anyone else. However, as I past St Giles’ Cathedral, I saw a piper on his break from entertaining the tourists’, leaning up against the wall and smoking a cigarette. I thought it would make for a good image as the concept seemed quite comical. Whilst approaching him, I thought this would be a great opportunity, and practice, to ask him if I could take his portrait. My thinking was he must get asked that all the time so wouldn’t be phased by the idea. Unbelievably, I wasn’t nervous, and I calmly explained who I was and what I was doing. With a big smile he said “yeah man, cool.” I took one shot only – not sure why – thanked him for his time and walked away. After reviewing the image, I must admit, it’s not great and certainly not good enough to be part of a series. However, I don’t really mind, as this exercise was never about the end result and more to do with confidence building in regards to asking a stranger to take their portrait.

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References

GPS Coordinates. (2020). “GPS Coordinates” [Online] Available from: https://www.gps-coordinates.net/

Niall McDiarmid. (2020). “Niall McDiarmid Photographer” [Online] Available from: https://www.niallmcdiarmid.com/

Lens Culture. (2020). “Faces of our times: The people of London” [Online] Available from: https://www.lensculture.com/articles/niall-mcdiarmid-faces-of-our-times-the-people-of-london

British Journal of Photography. (2018). “British Journal of Photography” [Online] Available from: https://www.bjp-online.com/tag/niall-mcdiarmid/

It’s Nice That. (2018). “Photographer Niall McDiarmid travels from town to town to capture the essence of Britain” [Online] Available from: https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/niall-mcdiarmid-town-to-town-photography-170718

My biggest fear surrounding this assignment was the fact I had to ask people to take their portrait. Before starting the process, I kept thinking to myself, “How many times has someone approached me and asked that, and if they did, what would I say?” The answer was “never” and most likely “No”. Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy taking pictures of strangers’, but these are always done candidly. To ask someone seems strange, an annoyance for them, or perhaps even worse, an invasion of their privacy. Ultimately, these people didn’t know who I really was or what I would do with their photograph, but yet they trusted me enough to allow me snap away.

The brief for this assignment states, “leaving technical photographic considerations aside…” To be honest, I wasn’t sure if this meant I was being advised to only focus on the involvement with my subjects’, and to disregard any photographic technical abilities I have. If my understanding was correct, I understood to a certain degree the point that was trying to be made. However, surely the basic technical aspects of photography, for example, exposure, shutter speed etc. cannot merely be ignored and the quality of my images’ potentially becoming jeopardised for the sake of trying to build relationships. I found though that with the experience and technical skills I already possessed, I was working on ‘default’ mode, so to speak, and very rarely had to consider the technical aspects during the photographic process. Prior to the shoot, I set my camera’s ISO to 400, selected ‘aperture priority’ mode and dialled in an aperture of f5.6, as I knew I wouldn’t require a shallow depth of field. Also, as it was predetermined that I would be taking full body portraits, I understood this would help keep all of my subjects’ in focus. I didn’t have to worry about the camera’s shutter speed, due to the shooting modes selected, and because there was enough light available, there was minimal chance of producing out of focus images’. One thing I noticed I was doing frequently at the beginning, was selecting various focal lengths from my 18-35mm lens. A good example of this would be the portrait of ‘Andy and Patricia’. It’s obvious that the field of view in this image is wider than the rest in the series, however, I don’t feel it weakens it at all and deserves to be in the final selection, albeit, with minor differences to the framing. I also noticed when using this method that the process took longer than initially planned, and it was noticeable at times that the subjects’ were becoming agitated. To combat this, and to have the rest of my portraits’ consistent with each other, I selected a fixed focal length of 35mm and simply used my legs to find my desired focal length. I chose what could be considered as a more ‘traditional’ composition, placing my subjects’ in the centre of the frame. I found this works best when creating full body portraits and is a technique the likes of Niall McDiarmid uses regularly.

I found that with every new stranger I spoke to, my confidence grew, and as a result the quality of my portraits’ improved dramatically. I began to give my subjects’ some ‘direction’ and I found the whole process became more enjoyable for both myself and them. It’s no surprise that the portrait’s I feel are the strongest, happen to have been taken near the end of the process, which to me proves that the more you do something, the better you will become. Though, I’m happy with the portraits’ I’ve taken and feel I’ve achieved what I set out to do, what I’m most satisfied with is the confidence I’ve gained through this experience and have been inspired to start a personal portrait project in the near future.

I must admit there wasn’t much creativity involved when photographing my subjects’. The process was incredibly simple and at no point did I want to become experimental with my ideas. Reflecting back to Niall McDiarmid’s work, though very good, it also seems simple in terms of his execution when creating a portrait. I believe the type of image you are trying to produce will determine how experimental you may become, but if the context is correct, sometimes simplicity is all that’s needed to make a strong image.

As my tutors report can be found on my blog, I won’t repeat what has already been written, but will however, reflect on some of these points further and mention topics that have not been included that I believe to be important for my development.  

Overall, I’m very happy with the feedback I received and felt my tutor appreciated my efforts in regards to approaching and photographing strangers – a task I was genuinely nervous about. He did mention that the series seemed “a bit snapshot in places” and I appreciate and fully understand where he is coming from in regards to this comment. By including the castle in the portraits’, they could be mistaken for a photograph a tourist would take of a friend, or family member, for example. However, as the castle was an important factor within the images, to help with the overall theme of the series – ‘tourists’ – I’m not entirely sure how I could have made the portraits’, less like snapshots.

We discussed ‘terms’ used to describe certain groups of people – in this instance ‘foreigner’s’ and ‘tourists’ – and how, as photographers, we need to be careful with the terms we use if writing about them. I found this to be an incredibly interesting and helpful discussion, as not only did I appreciate that some people might not like to be called ‘foreigner’s’, as this could have negative connotations of them being ‘invaders’ of some sort, it also made me realise that I could extend my search to those, for example, who may be from different parts of the U.K.

My tutor felt the portrait that worked best within the series, was that depicting the two Korean gentleman. He liked that one was holding a selfie stick, which had strong connotations of a ‘tourist’ and their style of clothing helped reinforce the idea that they were indeed from Korea, meaning the GPS coordinates that I used, may be irrelevant in this instance.

Though, it was agreed that using GPS coordinates was irrelevant and didn’t bring anything extra to the portraits’, we did discuss how these could be used effectively in a photography. It turns out my tutor created a project exploring the theme of disused mine shafts in the U.K. In this instance, he used GPS coordinates to locate these mineshafts, where he then created grid references for a more accurate location.

A topic I wanted to discuss during my feedback session, surrounded an image by Niall McDiarmid, which I discovered when doing research for this assignment. It depicts a women, wearing all orange, working at a stall selling oranges. I wanted to find out if there was a specific term for this photography style, but my tutor wasn’t sure. However, he mentioned that when you photograph someone in their working environment, it’s called an ‘environmental portrait’. This was a term I had never heard of before, but is something I will do further research in to.

We also had an interesting discussion about the value an image has to the photographer. For example, are they creating images because that subject will benefit them financially, or, are they doing it to generate social awareness about that subject?