Statement Of Intent
During my career as a commercial and advertising photographer the genre I enjoyed more than any was portraiture, be it studio based or on location.
Building a rapport with the subjects, seeing the photographic possibilities within them and helping them relax in front of the camera in order to capture a great image is hugely rewarding.
I have included in my Associate Panel a mixture of images taken as part of or during commissions together with some personal images. Each of the subjects having, I think, interesting characteristics and personalities.
“Eyes are the windows of the soul” and for me engaging with the subject through eye contact with the camera is so important in order to reveal their own unique personality and individuality. Whilst presenting the panel in monochrome gives each image a further emotive and timeless quality.
The Original panel, at an advisory day, received the feedback of “not being quite ready” not least because I didn't have a statement of intent other than “My Portraits.’
So, back to the drawing board, although I wasn’t that disappointed with the comments on the images.
My choice of monochrome for the images was dictated originally by the fact that some of them were actually taken on black and white film. So even though deciding to change images I actually stuck with the same format and applied a slight tone to give the panel better cohesion.
I used a ‘collection’ in Lightroom to assess the panel and whilst doing it a friend just happened to mention that many of the subjects were connecting with the camera by eye contact.
Eureka! I had my ‘statement of intent’ and with some more switching of images, removal of subjects not looking directly at the camera, adding other portraits where they were and rearranging images within the panel there was my, hopefully, successful Associate submission.
