fstopinertia – photography of angela marklew

I have to say that for me, photographing two people is probably the most daunting thing to do.  Now, I’m not saying that shooting one person is a walk in the park, because there are always challenges with every shoot but think about it…shooting a single person, you only have to worry about the light falling on one person, the emotion coming from one person, and the placement in the frame of one person – your focus is solely on that one person.  The greatest challenge (and this is with any portrait) is creating an image that draws the viewer in.

Shooting a group of people (3 or more) is fun in that you can play around with breaking the group up into smaller sub-groups (my preference is to always have odd-numbered groups of people).  Groups can be more challenging in terms of lighting, but by your arrangement of people, you can always create a dynamic, visually compelling image.  Now we get into shooting the double portrait…the reason this is the most challenging for me is two-fold.  First, you can’t really break up your subjects into smaller groups of odd numbers because (and here is reason number two) shooting a double portrait is about shooting the relationship between two people.  In shooting a double portrait you have to create a visually compelling image that draws the viewer in and makes them understand the relationship.

When shooting a portrait, no matter how many people are involved, I feel it’s important to not only make the portrait informational, but emotional as well.  As Paul Strand once said, “it is one thing to photograph people.  It is another to make others care about them by revealing the core of their human-ness.”

This is Milo.

Among other things, he works as a contortionist at the Venice sideshow.  We got together one day so I could take some photos of him – let me tell you, this kid is no joke.

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Here are some recent portraits I shot for my workshop – the assignments were to shoot a portrait incorporating an element of nature and to shoot a portrait incorporating hands…

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I recently had a workshop assignment to take a portrait while shooting through something.  I was inspired by an image by one of my favorite photographers, Platon…which depicts a model standing amidst vibrant red and purple leaves.  The leaves are casting amazing shadows on her face and because there is foliage in the foreground, mid-ground, and background, it’s an extremely layered image.

So I set out to Griffith Park (which is basically the only nature in this city) to find something suitable.  It quickly became apparent that lush colours and foliage were not part of the landscape.  It was at this point that I had a creative block.  I had something so specific that I wanted to do in my mind that I became locked into that idea and it didn’t seem like I’d be able to get past it.  In addition to this, I had planned on using natural light and as the sun was going behind a hill, clouds also started rolling in – which meant I was losing my light very quickly.  But, as a photographer, it’s my job to make things work.  So I picked up Linda (who was going to model for me) and I just had to improvise – and this is what I came up with:

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Francis Bacon once said “the job of the artist is to deepen the mystery”…

I’m three weeks into my current portrait workshop with Ken Merfeld.  This time it’s definitely all about breaking out of my box – that is, incorporating more shadows and embracing hard light sources.  Our first two assignments were to shoot a portrait with a definite mood and to shoot a portrait incorporating shadows.  In keeping with the theme of my recent work, the mood I chose was a dark one – perhaps introspective, or a little melancholy – what I hadn’t anticipated (because I don’t see this when I see the image) was people thinking it was unsettling and eerie.  Ken always emphasizes that strong portraits elicit strong responses, so if my work makes people feel uncomfortable, I’ll take that as a step in the right direction.

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Monday marked the last session of my workshop with Ken Merfeld.  When looking at the body of work I’ve completed during the last 9 weeks, there was a definite mood…my recent portraits seem to all have a subtle quiet, melancholy mood with an underlying intensity – much like my recent self (as those who know me well can attest to).  Ken remarked that the first body of work he ever saw from me (which was my food series) was much more playful, upbeat, and quirky…which makes complete sense as that body of work was completed prior to the accident that left me immobilized last winter (my “colourful” period).  Since then, in dealing with the repercussions of the accidents of the last 12 months, my mood has switched from playful to more introspective.  Until viewing my recent work as a body of work, I didn’t realize how much of myself I put into my portraits…and every portrait I take is, in essence, a self-portrait.

“My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph” – Richard Avedon

One of the last workshop assignments was to take a portrait of someone who has their back to you.  This is what I came up with – it’s probably the piece I’m most proud of from the last 8 weeks.  It’s titled “(I Have Seen You Through) Various States of Madness”

“In a portrait, I’m looking for the silence in somebody” – Henri-Cartier Bresson