Plaster Personality

Never been a "people" photographer.  Even though have been shooting portraits and location shots of people for many publications and what not. When on free range travel assignments I choose to shoot some individuals if it can bring strength to the image, if the mood is right and I feel that I need the images strongly enough, or if the person/people shows that they "belong" in the image. I have during the years developed techniques to shoot candid just an arms-lenghts away or to set up a conversation to make the victim relax and ignore the camera (not keen on posing stuff). Most of the times in my world the stronger images are without people in them though.  Most people I meet when I am out and about rarely have nothing to bring to the table, while a man-made object many more times has a feel and stronger personality, so the "people" is still in the equation in a way. The man/woman who sculptured and painted the above plaster sculpture has possibly less personality than the goddess he/she created, I believe he put his personal touch on the task and brought out his creativeness in the procedure, and he did a great job. Ofcourse, as a (ex-pro) photographer you are on very thin ice mentioning that People, Nudes and Fashion doesn't do it for you as much as location shots, architecture, object and landscape/cityscape photography. I love naked women but I have no interest in nude photography. Some of my friends are humans (?!), doesn't make me want to photograph them very often. On the contrary, I really like shooting live music, this is for me one thing close to my heart and where I can say people are interesting to shoot, the heavier and lively gigs the better. One of my absolute favorite photographer is Steve McCurry, he does portrait photography as no one else I have come about. His portraits are very un-human to me and that is what makes them so attractive. The way he finds the focus and blends it with the spot-on color balance and shades makes him in my view a master artistic craftsman.  Maybe if I liked people more….. Funny thing is, the portrait I have taken during my years have turned out really good and still does have a rather high "personality feel" to them and I like these. Still, a portrait is a portrait is a portrait, even if it's a painted piece of plaster.

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