This is Part2 of a conversation about portraiture with photographers David Mayne and Rob Law. Part1 can be found here.
Rob Law
I once saw an image of a person in the street, looking straight at the camera showing a thumbs and my heart sank because that’s the extreme modification of somebody’s behaviour. And I’m going to mention street photography as a vexed genre of the industry. When you see pictures of aspiring street photographers throwing out pictures where they have clearly been clocked by a subject they have been trying to photograph candidly; that makes me feel very uneasy, because it implies no consent and this brings us back to trust. I’m not against street photography because it’s extremely valid, but it does appear unnatural when some is caught off guard. I don’t like seeing it.
David Mayne
I think a lot of street portraits these days is cheap because you are catching people when they are not at their best. At one extreme you have someone like Bruce Gilden ramming a camera in somebody’s face or catching somebody stuffing a pasty in their face. Going back to what you said about trust, stopping people and talking to them on the off chance that you might get a picture; you can do that or you can humiliate somebody by stealing a picture and sticking it online where people have had no input into the process.
RL
But the other end you’ve got Cartier-Bresson and his images would not work if he had been seen by the people photographed. You need that decisive moment, don’t you?
DM
But I’d say Cartier-Bresson tends to take a wider view when he’s doing a street scene. So he would take more of a tableau of events rather than somebody deepthroating a sausage roll with their eyes bulging out of their head. The latter is a cheap gag of somebody at their worst.
RL
Yes, it is weak on narrative and easy stuff to get; I totally agree.
Andy Barnham
Gilden basically throws a flash in peoples’ faces and presses the shutter when they are still in shock at the process. In my previous life as a fashion photographer, I did a certain amount of street portraits. At runway shows I did not have access to, I would hang around outside the venue and catch candid moments, but my aim was never to upset anyone nor show them in a bad light. I would always try to show them at their best and in terms of street fashion; most of the time they wanted to be photographed and were dressed in order to attract attention. It was a straightforward and, especially in regards to what has just been said, an honest transaction.
RL
Do you know Math Roberts in Swansea? Math is a young man and a bit of a maverick. He does a lot of street photography, but he has some bloody genius for capturing that decisive moment and for selecting and framing things that the rest of us would not see. And in all those pictures, people are not aware the photography has been taken. He does it in a very stealthy way and it is done with complete respect and probably empathy as well. I appreciate this kind of street photography. The people are completely unaware they are being photographed, so it is the complete opposite of what we are talking about, in terms of modifying peoples’ behaviour.
DM
Math has a knack for using colour and the repetition of colour and patterns within the frame, which I find quite interesting because that takes a lot of observation. There might be somebody wearing blue trousers walking past the blue door whilst there’s a blue car going down the street type thing. I have reduced it here and he does it much better than I describe. It’s his trademark.
RL
David, you might remember one of his works where someone is reaching out, pulling somebody else up onto the high parts of this concrete wreck of a pier; it has a perfect classical spiral composition. He just does things without thinking about it. It is unbelievable.
DM
I think he gets punched on the nose occasionally.
RL
Occasionally, yes
DM
There are a lot of people who, where he works, who are a bit on the rough side shall we say. Swansea High Street is a bit rough.
AB
So what are your tricks or thoughts in terms of trying to get people to act naturally in front of the camera and not modify their behaviour?
DM
I think you have to catch them out but in a way that is not to their detriment. You have to make the people that you’re photographing comfortable and to build trust. I think it is a massive boon to being able to tease out, for want of a better word, a performance or a part of their personality which, when combined with the way they look, brings out a certain photogenic quality. That is my approach. We have been talking about street photography but I do not have it in me to stop somebody in the street and chat to them. In that regard I’m much more comfortable photographing people that I know.
AB
I think that’s certainly a skill, to go up to someone and be comfortable enough to to ask them to take their portrait. Rob, when did you start to engage with that?
RL
About four years ago. As my Holyhead project grew and evolved, I knew that I would have to include more layers to the project including portraits and testimonies. The portrait was a starting point but it was also important to hear about their thoughts and in particular and their hopes, fears and aspirations. The big question is, ‘How did you vote in the referendum and what do you expect?’ It is a confusing paradox, isn’t it? Why did people in one of the major EU gateways to Ireland, where all the ferries go through and all trade used to go through until it was bypassed, vote to leave the EU? So it is getting in their shoes, getting their perspective and trying to make sense of it all. And even if it doesn’t make sense, at least it is starting a dialogue. It’s not Nelson Mandela and the Peace and Reconciliation commission but it is in that spirit of understanding, even if you do not agree. So I start with a conversation to test the water which often ends with a portrait. We talk about neutral expressions and that is what I aim for but sometimes do not achieve it as some people beam at me. And there is nothing you can do about it, you know? You can advise them and say, ‘This is a serious portrait.’ They normally understand, but you can not get what you want all the time.
DM
Is a beaming smile a manifestation of who they are? Is it necessarily a bad thing that they are smiling?
RL
I would suggest zooming out even further in regards to the places that I photograph. I’ll be honest; how much of my own prejudice do I bring to my photography. How selective am I being in choosing the places in Holyhead? I can choose to photograph some nice aesthetically pleasing locations as well as some horrible places. I could just present some really nasty work.
DM
I think that is the point; it is very hard to be objective. You can not leave your baggage at the door when you go out to be a photographer because who you are as a person influences the photographer within you. There was a debate in regards to the Alec Soth approach to portraiture where people appear neutral or miserable and whether street portraits in particular should move away from that.
RL
It is always about rules, isn’t it? They can be broken. There are exceptions but using a landscape photography example and the rule of thirds; our brains are wired that we like things like that. That’s how it works.
AB
I find some of the best shots I take are when I am telling someone that I am testing or adjusting the light; they do not pay much attention to me when I take a frame under this premise and this is evidenced by their facial expressions. I often beg for patience while I adjust this or that. In these moments I find that the person is generally contemplative in their own thoughts and that the a’re not looking towards the camera. There is no particular expression on their face; they are just there in that moment.
DM
One of the examples you shared on Twitter is of a guy, looking off camera with this expression of thoughtful contemplation.
AB
Full disclosure; when I decided to focus on portraiture, I threw myself into it and built my expertise and portfolio with model testing sessions. I completed over 200 sessions in 2019 which is how I developed both my technical skills and my approach in regards to establishing trust and offering direction. This particular gentleman was an IP lawyer so we talked about copyright and so on. I can’t quite remember the specific direction I gave him for this image, but it would have been something personal to him. I ask people to close their eyes and imagine a situation or feeling and to invest in that memory and emotion and, when they are ready, to open their eyes. It is then I press the shutter. I see these expressions for only a short period time before whatever emotion is most prevalent on their minds re-establishes itself; I normally manage to take three or so frames.
RL
If I make a quick example of one of my portraits that Craig Easton liked; it’s completely neutral. It shows the guy in his environment and Craig suggested I concentrate on this kind of portrait.
DM
Now you say neutral, but I don’t see it as being neutral, I just see him. There’s something on his mind, he’s thinking about something, it has an emotional quality to it. So you can have. There is neutral and I suppose there is neutral.
RL
Have a think about COVID; none of us wore masks before this. Everybody now walks around with masks. The first thing I noticed is you can tell whether someone is smiling or not underneath the mask. It’s all in the eyes. Everything is covered but you can tell straight away.
DM
That is a good point; knowing whether someone’s eyes are twinkling or whether they are as black as coal.
AB
With this in mind, it can be interesting viewing a portrait and covering up the lower half of a face leaving only the eyes to look at. I took the portrait of a professional rugby player the week after he played an international match, where blood has leaked into his eye. He may be half smiling but his eyes, in my opinion, express pain. My direction to him, indeed the whole squad who I photographed individually, was to think about what rugby meant to him and that was his reply.
RL
We’re coming to an end and I want to mention something we have not had the chance to touch upon yet and that is to take the portrait of someone with their back turned to the camera. I like it when you don’t see the face and what a person’s body can tell you about them. My favourite example of this is an image by Dan Wood from his series called The Gap In The Hedge; there is a burly motorcyclist clad in head to toe in black leather by the side of the road. He has a John Wayne pose and he’s clearly somebody in his 50s or 60s with long, greying hair. It tells so much about the person without seeing the face. This idea was also done by the German photographer Yvonne Must who did a series with descendants of German refugees from the Second World War, from the Sudetenland. A lot of the pictures are of women who have their backs turned to the camera or just side on, where you do not see their faces properly. I think it’s really clever stuff.
AB
David, Rob; thank you both very much for your time and thoughts.
