Murdo McLeod

I was reading an interview with Jane Bown the other day on the Observer's archives online and she mentioned that her favourite photographer was Murdo McLeod which she described as 'simply the best'.  I decided to investigate and see what Murdo's work was like.

I wasn't disappointed when I came across a collection of his images on the Guardian's website.

His work verges on the ridiculous. He seems to have a way about him where he gets his sitters to do things they wouldn't normally be seen doing.  For example, many of his subjects have been captured pulling faces with Bobby Charlton and Jeremy Paxman among them.

He seems to shoot a portrait where we see more of the person than we ever did before.  They are given the Murdo treatment and they become more human and more accessible.

His use of lighting is interesting too.  As are his props.  You only have to look at the portrait of Roy Keane with a bird's skull to see the lengths he is prepared to go to when it comes to props and the charisma he must have to get his sitters to do exactly as he wants.

His humour is evident in all his images but he does not mock his subjects instead he seems to elevate them to a level we've never seen before by making the extraordinary do the ordinary.

His work can be seen on the Guardian's website and also on his own website.

Exercise 7: Focal length

Head and shoulder portraits or of the face generally favour a medium to long focal length.

Being too close to your subject makes them feel uncomfortable and it is recommended to give them 2 metres space.  Therefore a focal length of 80-120mm works well.  I use a 70-200mm lens for my portrait work which allows me to get further away from my subjects.  

Another reason why a longer focal length is important is because by flattening the perspective all the facial features are shown close to their true size.  A wide angle lens used up close distorts the facial features and exaggerates the size of the nose etc.  Not a very flattering look. 

18mm

You can easily see that the facial features are distorted with the nose looking extremely big. 

50mm 

This looks much better with the facial features looking more realistic.

105mm

Here the facial features look best and in the best perspective. 

Exercise 8: Varying the pose

Up until now the course has focused on the face in portraits including expression and how it contributes to a successful portrait.

Once we pull back from the face to include the body another variable comes into play - the way the figure arranges itself.

Pose or stance can be seen as the body's expression.  Certain positions, or the way the person stands, sits or leans are more elegant or expressive that others.

For this exercise I had to do some research in magazines and online to see the many different types of poses that are used in portrait photography.  I came across this useful guide which can act as a starting point on the Digital Photography School website.

I then had to set up a portrait session and shoot my subject in three different poses.  Within these I had to suggest as I shot different limb positions.

Due to a shortage of models at my disposal I used my sister for this shoot too and therefore doubled up with a previous exercise.

Sitting with legs crossed

I don't think this is as flattering directly facing the camera as it tends to distort the person slightly.  

I think with the camera angle altered slightly this pose is more elegant and attractive. 

Standing

There's something a little unnatural about this pose.  Perhaps the subject's hand is too high and doesn't look like a natural thing to so.  

I think this is a more natural looking position for the hands and arms. 

Leaning 

Image of subject leaning into hands.  I feel looking back at this image the subject was leaning too heavily into her hands.  

Exercise 6: Review a portrait sequence

For this exercise I had to set up a portrait session in a formal and structured way so that framing and setting is consistent.

I had to take at least 20 shots exploring the possibilities and fine nuances of expression.  The essential element was focussing on the subject's expression and pose assessing it from frame to frame in order to select what I consider to be the best of the sequence.

From my notes I have written down what I felt the progress of the shoot as well as what I considered to be the best.

My notes read:

I felt at the beginning of the shoot my subject was more tense, less relaxed and the entire shoot was in danger of having a look and feel of formality to it that I was trying hard to avoid.

To counteract this, I added some humour to my directions and chit chat and also showed her some images as I went along.  I feel this relaxed her and once she began to have more fun, the expressions became more interesting.

I was helped too by the gentle breeze that day which gently when it came our way blew her hair back giving a fresh look and active feel to the shots.  They didn't look so dead, flat and formal.

I felt the smiling shots were best with a couple of varied poses.

When I reviewed the images in Lightroom after the shoot I found that some of the images I shot at the beginning were better than I thought.  I also found that some of the images that I thought were good were not as good as I initially thought.

It is difficult to really see or get a true feel for the image by looking at the monitor on your camera.  It is too small to see some of the finer nuances and facial features.

I feel I was guilty of stopping shooting once I thought I had the best shot (in my opinion solely from looking at the camera's monitor).  However, I did shoot a few more just to make sure I had more to chose from.  I am glad I did this as some of those images from the continued shooting worked out to be the best.

This image was one of the last ones I shot and I like the relaxed and informal feel to it. 

This images was shot at start just as the subject was becoming a little more relaxed.  She doesn't look as relaxed as in the above.  

Her work is familiar but why don't I know Jane Bown

Playing around on Google this morning I stumbled upon a portrait of Sinead O'Connor by Jane Bown.  It's a great portrait that says so much about the singer yet shows so little of her. She is looking down, her head facing downwards and slightly resting on her shoulder.  This picture mood well by shifting focus from the features we expect to focus on in a stereotypical portrait.  

Sinead O'Connor by Jane Bown

A further search on Bown's work led me to Samuel Beckett's portrait.  I have seen this photograph so many times I feel like I own it, and now at last I know who actually took it.

Samuel Beckett by Jane Bown

Born in 1925, Bown is a British photographer that works in black and white using natural available light.

She has shot hundreds of portraits from Woody Allen to John Lennon, Cartier-Bresson to most recently a request from the Queen.

Bown has shot portraits for The Observer for decades and they have put together an online portfolio of her work - The Complete Jane Bown, A lifetime in Photographs.

She says of herself, "People describe me as a portrait photographer, but I am not.  I am a hack."

There is also an interesting article from the Observer a couple of years back about Bown together with a video where she talks about her work.

Her latest book Exposures is a retrospective of her life's work.

In conversation with David Goldblatt at the Barbican

As part of the Barbican's new exhibition Everything was Moving: Photography from the 60s and 70s, I attended In Conversation with David Goldblatt...

This exhibition surveys photography from an international perspective and includes the work of photographers from around the globe who worked during those decades.  

It features 12 key figures including Bruce Davidson, William Eggleston, David Goldblatt, Graciela Iturbide, Boris Mikhailov,Sigmar Polke, Malick Sidibé, Shomei Tomatsu, and Li Zhensheng as well as important innovators whose lives were cut tragically short such as Ernest Cole, Raghubir Singh andLarry Burrows.

I plan to visit the exhibition before it closes at the end of the year. 

David Goldblatt's work has a sharp and subtle take on on life in South Africa under apartheid and in this session he discussed his work with the London based duo - Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin.

It was the first time these three South Africans were brought together to discuss their work and influences.

Goldblatt spoke of his latest project - portraits of offenders at the scene of the crime.  He was inspired by the violence and very high levels of crime in South Africa.  It is something that everyone experiences directly and it is a very big problem.

Although many photographers have chosen to work on this subject, Goldblatt wanted to come at it from a different angle.  He is interested in their story, not in a way where he is a therapist or social worker or even trying to make sense of their actions.  He is interested in simply documenting it.

He interviews his subjects, they are  told what he wants to do, where the images will be shown and the consequences for their futures is they 'sign up'.  Their pictures will be out in the open and if their misdemeanours are made public it could upset their job prospects or other future plans.  He pays 800 rand to any subject who signs up.

He shoots them at the scene of their crimes.  This, he explains, is often a very painful journey for them to make.  What strikes me most about Goldblatt is how much detail he knows about each subject.  You can't help but feel emotional about some of the stories - an emotion that he doesn't seem to share at times as he sticks to the role of documenter.

The images he showed were in black and white despite having used colour for his personal work after apartheid.   Goldblatt feels there is something deeply wrong in South Africa and that is a dangerous and troublesome place to live.  He has returned to the black and white medium because of this and also because it is a medium he is very comfortable using.

Goldblatt sees all photographs as documents whether they are passport photos, his work, CCTV stills etc.  They all document something.  The camera and the photograph can be seen as something quite aggressive as Susan Sontag has written.  However he argues that is is also capable of showing and making love.

He spoke of why he has only ever carried out his personal work in South Africa with the exception of asbestos mines in Western Australia and a project he is about to embark on in West Brom.  He feels like a stranger in other countries.  An outsider and therefore at a loss to create or document something about the area.

That's something I feel I can relate to - his sense of people and space.

He was questioned by Broomberg about how he got the balance right to live his own life and raise a family whilst travelling to document his country.  Goldblatt said that it was difficult to balance and that he often didn't get it right but was ultimately happy with the choices he made.

He spoke about the importance of text for him in relation to displaying his work.  It is extremely important for him to set out the context for each of his images.  I felt that with each anecdote he provided to the images he showed up new life was breathed into the pictures.  Their meaning had a greater significance.  He insists that text is always laid out beside his images and not in a standalone brochure when his work is exhibited.

I found Goldblatt to be very down to earth with a no nonsense attitude but not to the point of being arrogant.  He has a passion for photography, for documenting his people and his country.  But what strikes me most is his passion to always be true to himself and the honesty in and about his achievements.

He seemed to be uncomfortable with the praise being heaped on him by the audience and Broomberg and Chanaris.

Most interestingly, the title of the exhibition Everything was moving he said was incorrect for his photography as in South Africa everything was standing still.  No progress, no advancements.

http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=13613

Exercise 5: Eye contact and expression

There is a difference between the overall look of a portrait when the character is looking straight at the camera and away from the camera.  To date I have been shooting mostly with the subject looking at the camera.  I suppose I have avoided looking away from the camera as it doesn't seem quite as comfortable to shoot.  For example of they are looking too far away you can't see their eyes properly or indeed if they are facing the side you may only be able to see one eye which done properly can look good but badly can look quite odd.

For this exercise I had to shoot a portrait session with the subject looking at the camera and away from the camera.

Looking at the camera

Looking away from the camera

It was not as hard as I thought it would be to shoot with the subject looking away from the camera.  I think once I got used to directing them to where I wanted them to look it became easier.  

Having the subject looking away from the camera makes the viewer look in the direction the they are looking to see what they are looking at.  This can be a useful way of shifting your viewer's attention to a different area of focus.  

More out of focus stuff - Brian Griffin

I have discovered the Water People series by Brian Griffin courtesy of my tutor.  A few of the images in this series are out of focus portraits.  And they are different to anything I have seen so far.

Griffin flew to Iceland to shoot these images of the people that provide water to the world as he describes them.  It is presented in his book in narrative format.  

The images from the series that can be seen on his website include portraits of the pilots and an air hostess.  Those of the pilots are close head and shoulders crops and the subjects have water pouring down their faces.  The one of the air hostess includes the torso and he has also used water to cover her face preventing us from seeing her true identity.  

Griffin's out of focus shots provide a different way in presenting your subject to the world whilst also keeping something of them away from the viewer.  They break with the traditional style of portraits.

I think the use of something other than simply blur provides an interesting take on the traditional portrait.  

I have also looked at Griffin's other work and there is an emptiness in his scenes - almost a coldness - especially in those in black and white.  There is an other worldliness about them.  A sense of the unreal on occasions.  

Brian Griffin's website and the images I have viewed from the Water People can be seen here. 

http://www.briangriffin.co.uk/stills.php?pg_id=18&img_id=5

I think moving on from here I would like to explore the use of other elements other than camera or motion blur and out of focus to take the focus off my subjects.