From: Jeff Buck (jeffbuck@swcp.com)
Date: 01/01/03-10:13:31 PM Z
Jonathan: I've done a fair number of portraits in the past year w/ my 8x10
Deardorff, a big camera (actually, I'm doing 5x7s, but w/ reducing
back). The subjects are family, friends, and a couple times friends of
friends. I sure don't want to subdue anybody or overwhelm them w/ this big
strange camera. Kids seem indifferent. Adults sometimes seem a little
wide-eyed so I have taken a tip from I can't remember who and have shown
them how the camera works. Take the lens out and put it back. Get them
under the blanket for a look at the groundglass, the diffusing action of my
old Imagon portrait lens, etc. I haven't done this enough to venture a
confident assessment of the value, but the idea, as I gathered from some
article or other, is to make the subject forget him or herself in devoting
considerable attention to this grand old camera and all. I have hoped that
people will take the camera and the old-timey plain backdrop (and even some
portrait books of the Pictorial period I have around) as permission or
inspiration to show their dignity. I've succeeded beyond my hopes a couple
times in the maybe 18 months doing this and failed many times. I'm going
to keep doing it. -jb
At 10:32 PM 1/1/2003 -0500, Jonathan Bailey wrote:
>Shannon-
>
> > Any other suggestions for helping people to relax and open up in front
>of a rather large camera?
>
>I've been shooting with the 8x10 since the mid-70's - and I have a portrait
>project I've been working on with the 8x10 for the past ten years....
>
>Actually, the most relaxed and psychologically "available" portraits I have
>done were made with the Diana camera. In 1979, after a three-year
>bartending stint which I knew was ending, and over a period of several
>weeks, I asked each of the afternoon regulars to step outside so I could do
>their portraits. It was the first "project" I'd even done with the Diana -
>and I was stunned at how relaxed and natural these people were: completely
>at ease, even lighthearted, in front of what is obviously a toy. And this
>has been born out again and again as I work in the streets wherever I
>travel, but most especially in Mexico.
>
>The tools you choose to work with very much dictate the results. Avedon
>made portraits using the 8x10 and subdued the power-elite into a kind of
>submission. Big cameras are given to that. Nick Nixon uses the 8x10 to
>photograph his wife's sisters every year (exposing just one sheet of film in
>the process) - and while he does not use the 8x10 to intimidate the way
>Avedon might have, the portraits he produces are very much about the large
>camera.
>
>The big camera says, "I am serious and this is a serious event." The Diana
>can be used in a completely serious fashion - indeed, it should be - but it
>is obvious to even children that it's not a glitzy (read expensive) piece of
>hardware, and people respond accordingly.
>
>Do you disappear under the dark cloth to make your large camera portraits?
>What do you think that does for the "ambience" of the shoot? Even covering
>your face with a 35mm camera changes the dynamic when shooting people. I
>almost never cover my face when shooting people with the Diana - preferring
>to maintain eye contact with them while holding the camera at neck or chest
>level, shooting intuitively. I have found shooting like that becomes more
>like having "a gesture" with those concerned.
>
>Happy New Year.
>
>Jon
>www.jonathan-bailey.com
>Tenants Harbor, Maine
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