Peter.
I have decided my next big goal as a photographer is to take more portraits. I have been reading a lot about it and flipping through my collection of photo books for ideas and inspiration and have decided on a few things.
They will be shot mostly on black and white film and I will be using natural light. I am very inspired by Avedon’s work in the American west- very simple, clean, monochrome and shot using only natural light. I agree with his premise that artificial lighting can be somewhat distracting and gives the photo an artificial look.
Sometimes I feel like my lighting stuff gets in the way and creates more distance between the subject and I. I love experimenting with digital and artificial light and want to do that more too, but I also want to learn to work with the bare minimum, strip it all away and focus on the person. I feel like it will be harder in the sense that it really becomes about the person and what you can do to make it interesting and honest without hiding behind tricked out lighting.
This was shot on digital with window light.
