Vicarious photography

That look of skepticism or resignation in portraits. I thought it was me, somehow my personality displeasing the subject but when I designed a wedding album for another photographer using his photos, I saw the same look in his subjects' eyes and it was a huge relief to realise it wasn't me that was at fault, just the subject disliking their projected self.

So I thought about what I could do to take portrait photos that make me smile rather than cringe and I went to India. In the West Bengali village where I photographed people, there is no equivalent expression for "say cheese". The villagers don't have cars, they don't have computers and they are not bombarded by advertising that makes them feel inadequate. Instead, they focus on living and somehow, this makes them enjoy being photographed. 

But India doesn't help me in my day to day professional life so in a recent portrait sitting, I decided to take advantage of the fact that the three children had known each other all their lives and it was this relationship, not mine with them, that would be worthy of photographing. 

So I set up my beast of camera on a tripod with a cable remote release, set up a flash umbrella and let the children photograph each other.  

What began as a simple portrait session turned into the making of brilliant photos. In the words of their grandmother:

"I am stunned and have been gazing and gazing at your photos …. Lots of them. The ones of K and co are so life like of them; it made me feel they were in the room here, or I was there…. And seeing them all at their best, most interesting, and most loveable…. I wonder how ever it can be done, to get so much depth of a person into a photo" 

The children became fascinated in the shadows caused by flash and not having any preconceived ideas about what constituted a portrait session, incorporated the shadows, eventually deciding the shadow made for a monster leaping from the window towards the terrified child on the bed!