Blurbs #03 - Subject Involvement

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro

12/13/2003 08:39:56 PM · #1

"Saturate yourself with your subject and your camera will all but take you by the hand.â�� - Margaret Bourke-White

I found this quote rather interesting. Margaret Bourke-White was a pioneer of photojournalism. There is a short, but very interesting biography of her here:

//www.photo-seminars.com/Fame/MargaretWhite.htm

Making a photograph is something significantly more in depth than simply pointing the camera and pressing the button. I have found this to be true in some of my own photography. When I see something that draws my interest, I try to determine what it really is that I find intriguing about the subject. When I discover this element, I tend to focus on it more than the subject as a whole.

I have never spent any real time working on photojournalistic images, so Iâ��m only trying to assume the relevance of this quote that I have posted here. I believe that it means you should study your subject and become intimately familiar with it before you start photographing. Understand the relevance of the subject. Understand the mood of the subject. Understand any unique or interesting characteristics of the subject. Understand how light reacts with your subject. In the world of photojournalism where people are generally the subject of the images, knowing the climate (social,economical,political,etc) would allow you to find your approach to your subject. Photojournalists primarily shoot photos to support some specific story. If the story is about poverty in some third world country, chance are the photographer will search for scenes that depict people in a downtrodden way. The photographer will have studied the background of the story being pursued in an effort to produce images that support the viewpoint.

Yousuf Karsh was a master of portrait photography. He seemed to have a natural ability to convey a mood with his portraits. He would spend quite a bit of time talking to his subjects before and during his shoots. From these conversations, he would often draw emotion from the subject that would otherwise be hidden. A lot of his portraits were made during a friendly conversation rather than in a strictly posed environment. If you ever go look at his portrait work, be sure to hunt for the text information that goes along with them. Through this process of becoming saturated with the subject, the deeper meaning comes out more readily in the photo.

Becoming saturated with your subject doesnâ��t just have to be with people. Spend some time looking at what you plan to photograph. Look for that defining element.

Links:

Some Karsh Portraits
//academic.algonquincollege.com/staff/hurdleg/Images/Karsh/

A few Bourke-White photos
//www.leegallery.com/bourkewhite.html

Just some food for thoughtâ�¦

Spork99

OM System OM-1

12/13/2003 11:06:51 PM · #2

I heard a story from Arnold Newman (Yes, I met him. I went to see him speak about his photographs and his life.) about Karsh shooting his protrait of Winston Churchill. If you look at the picture, Churchill looks kind of angry. In fact Karsh was having difficulty getting any expression out of his subject who was smoking one of his famous cigars. Karsh grabbed the cigar from Churchill and immediately captured the famous expression on film.

I agree about getting to know your subject, you need to become intimate in some way with your subject to capture it effectively. Just like you can't write or speak knowledgably about a subject you do not understand, neither can you communicate it visually without that understanding.

Message edited by author 2003-12-13 23:11:44.

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

12/14/2003 11:23:33 AM · #3

Whatever he did with Churchill definitely produced a great portriat. When I look at that photo, there appears to be some smoke drifting on the right side... maybe that is just poor image quality on the net though...

soup

Canon EOS-30D

12/14/2003 11:30:53 AM · #4

an important aspect of this being true is knowing your camera well.
especially with live subjects - you really have to be able to make quick of work of the camera settings to take full advantage of a time sensitive shot. if you know your camera, and examine the subject deeply, your eyes will take control of your camera.

Originally posted by jmsetzler:

"Saturate yourself with your subject and your camera will all but take you by the hand.â�� - Margaret Bourke-White

Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f2.8D

12/14/2003 08:00:28 PM · #5

Knowing your camera is important for everything. Most cameras are pretty smart though. They will do a lot of work for you :)

Koriyama

Nikon D200

12/14/2003 09:27:02 PM · #6

Originally posted by jmsetzler:

Yousuf Karsh was a master of portrait photography. He seemed to have a natural ability to convey a mood with his portraits. He would spend quite a bit of time talking to his subjects before and during his shoots. From these conversations, he would often draw emotion from the subject that would otherwise be hidden. A lot of his portraits were made during a friendly conversation rather than in a strictly posed environment.

Now, this advice makes a lot of sense to me. Thanks, John, for posting it.