There is no part of my job in which I am not required to deal with people.
And sometimes, lots of people.
People… is what it is all about. Interacting with people, dealing with people, and reaching people for some purpose – all journalism or PR/commercial work, included.
But… in all honesty, it is about reaching the person that is most important to me.
Making that person feel comfortable enough within seconds of meeting them that I can stick a camera in their face and make an image.
And make a believable image. Even if I know there is just about nothing real about the image – the lighting, the posing, the position of the couches and chairs – I want to at least know that smile or laugh might have been real.
People are people wherever you go. All over the world – Cuba, Haiti, Morocco, London, Dallas, New York City – there are certain things that just work.
I hope you aren’t waiting for some magical formula… I have no such thing to give. And I would dare say, such a thing does not exist.
On a university campus for advancement materials, the people are people and the interactions can be just as real… even if they are a little more forced due to time constraints.
As soon as I say “people are people,” I also encourage: find what works. For you. And that person.
For me, I remain a chameleon. Be honest and real and sincere. I find that there is something about honesty and sincerity that disarms people. And it is in this disarming that I find it most effective to work.
Most importantly, never ever ever manipulate. There is a certain amount of trust that must be gained to photograph a person in close proximity. I assure you, these photos you’ve seen with extremely shallow depth of field are not some zoom trick a hundred feet away with 200mm lenses, these are close, relatively intimate photographs made with fairly short lenses. As an example, I’m sitting directly beside Emily (in the pink) to photograph Erica here:
And, pardon the raw nature of some of these images, there were no edits done. I’m out of that kind of time at the moment.
Stay tuned…
-Noah D.
