The Beauty of Expression
It’s been a wild week up in Wyoming’s national parks. I shot some absolutely gorgeous images, and those will be forthcoming here soon I promise. I also enjoyed some very nice time with my father and brother, and spent a large portion of the trip hiking, which was a fantastic addition to the photographic opportunities. Surrounded by the majestic peaks of the Tetons, watching the sun bath the slopes with alpenglow every morning, while countless songbirds filled the air with their music, it was easy to get lost in the grandeur. However, like with most things, it did have to come to an end, and I had to return to my life as a working photographer.
As I dove back in to my many projects, a previous client and friend Abigail, posted a portion of a set we shot together to her social media. She is a dramatic actress and our shoot, while it covered a lot of ground creatively, was primarily focused on her personality and expressiveness. I wanted to capture the beautiful range that she has very simply, with very little superfluous “fluff” as it were. My lens of choice to shoot it was a 50mm F0.95 prime lens made by Mitakon, primarily because of its beautiful soft rendering style, rather than it’s massive aperture. I wanted to create a simple, sharp look with the light profile, with the soft rendering of the glass used to balance out the final result. However, all of this photographic technique would be completely moot, if it were not for Abigail and her sheer expressive range.
Working with her on this project made me think about what makes portraiture such a beautiful challenge. As a portrait photographer, l relish working with any subject but I’d be lying if I said that everyone or at least most are easy to work with. If fact, the truth is precisely the opposite. Most people, because of their insecurities, past traumas, or just a misunderstanding of purpose of portraiture, present a challenge for a photographer. We all have these mental and emotional barriers in our lives, and they often interfere with our ability to live full lives. They also present a challenge for a photographer, who often has to visually break through these barriers to truly “see” the subject authentically. You become only interested in trying to “see” the subject through a blurry lens as it were, rather than engaging with them on a authentic, personal level. When you work with someone who has broken through these barriers on their own, the experience moves past this place, and becomes far more about reacting to the subject and their expressions of humanity. With someone like Abigail, who is trained in the expressive arts as well, the experience as a photographer becomes a dream. You become locked in, looking through the view finder of the camera, paying attention to the slightest eye movement, the slightest twitch of the corners of the mouth, being cognizant of every change in body language as you wait for every opportunity to create that perfect portrait. Below are some of the results of said shoot, I hope you enjoy them, and I hope you come back soon to hear more of my musings on this matter.
