In the last post I talked about Lee Friedlander and his project At Work, and decided that I was going to apply his techniques of photographing people while they're mid working (usually with their hands) and then incorporate this to my portraiture project. The two places I managed to capture a portrait of the worker was Le Mall, a key cutter and general kitchenware store and Ravi, which was a small Pakistani grocers.
Le Mall
Le Mall is a large shop which has a kitchenware and general appliances store in the front and a small key cutters in the back of the shop, so for this park of the project which relates to Friedlander's images, the key cutter's in the back was perfect for this.
The key cutting section of the shop was incredibly small, which meant that there was only one angle I could photograph the subject from which is shown in this set of images. Because of this I just had to try and work with what I had been given and make the most of it. The key cutting section was so small it meant I had to photograph it through the door way and stand in the hall which led to it, this is why you can see the sides of the door on the left and right sides of the photograph. I quite like this shot and think it it relates to Friedlander's work well, but I felt because the subjects body was looking away from the camera it felt like the image was not offering the subjects personality to the viewer. This point is also this way because his face is only half turned towards the camera, which further makes it feel like something is hidden from the portrait, which is not the case in all the other portraits I've taken, apart from the one in Chaal where the subject faced away from the camera.
After having these thoughts about how the portrait isn't connecting to the viewer due to the subject facing away from the camera, I decided to go back to my original portraiture technique which I have used throughout this project, and this worked a lot better. This image is one of my favourite from the project so far, because it gives the viewer a lot of visual information about what the subjects profession is. And unlike some of my other portraits, the viewer would have never seen this part of the key cutting shop unless it was for this image, which makes the portrait even more interesting. Having the subject fully facing the camera worked a lot better than the previous image I took. Even though the image is tight, I feel I have included just enough visual information to allow the viewer to understand, what type of business the subject works in. Furthermore I think the light works really well in highlighting the subjects face, which makes sure he is lit really well and is the centre of attention. My only problem with this image, is that I feel its straying away from Friedlander's technique, because he's not interacting with his profession anymore, and is just standing next to it. The subjects facial and body expression is also very good, as I spent a while talking to him, making him feel comfortable and telling him what I wanted him to do which was being natural.
Best Image
After developing the image to make sure he was facing the camera I then improved it further to instruct him to place his hand on the key cutting equipment, this was because the last image I took wasn't involved with the key cutting practise at all, unlike the first image. So basically for this image, I took elements from both pictures and combined them so the subjects body was facing the camera, but he had his arm on the equipment to thus still look involved in the practise. The composition is also a little bit wider than my previous image which means his feet have been captured as well, but on the downside to this it means that more of the doorway has been included within the frame.
Overall I was really happy with how this shoot went, and also how I managed to develop my idea on the shoot to adapt Friedlander's techniques to fit with my style of photography and also my project up to this point. The last image was also one of my favourite I've taken so far, and will potentially be used as a final piece.
Ravi's Food Store
This shoot was quite a difficult one because of the amount of customers that were in the shop at the time, this meant that I was restricted to only shooting the subject using this composition which was quite cramped and also not having long to take as much photographs as I needed before he had to get back to his customers.
This shoot was quite different compared to the last one in Le Mall's key cutters, because it was working with fruit and vegetables instead of machinery and keys. He decided himself with some instruction from me to pick up these green beans and hold them next to him, this shows hows its relating back to the work of Friedlander, because he's interacting with the objects he's selling. Because of not having much space to shoot in, I think the photograph portrays quite a cramped image which I feel takes away from the portrait. This is because there is so much going on in such a small space, you can forget quite easily that the image is solely about the subject first and the surroundings second. Ravi himself worked quite well in front of the camera though, it was just the settings that let the shoot down really.
Above is the other best image I managed to capture from this shoot at Ravi's, compared to the first I stepped a few steps back for this image to try and create a bit more space within the image and make it feel less cramped which I think worked overall. The only thing this then did was change the angle I shot from and thus meant the end of the green beans blend into the background more than I would've liked, which didn't happen on the first image. This is why for this shoot I couldn't pick my favourite image because there is advantages and disadvantages with both of them. Again, Ravi was natural in front of the camera which helped a lot for the shoot, but the surroundings were cluttered and cramped which meant coming away with a portrait I was really happy with was very difficult. In this image, he looks more alive and active than the first though, which I think makes the image look more alive.
Friedlander Experiment Conclusion
I'm happy that I researched into Friedlander and his techniques of photographing his subjects at work, because I do feel that I learnt something out of using his techniques within my own work. But I think if I carried on this idea of the subject interacting with what the shop sold or its purpose it would result in the photographs looking forced and far too unnatural. I think what I will do is make sure the subject sit's well in the surroundings of the shop, depending what the surroundings are, and try and have them interact with it a little bit. But I'm not going to force the interaction so much that the portrait looks unnatural, which I think happened at the Ravi shoot. Basically for my final Curry Mile shoot, and final for the project I'm going take a very basic level of Friedlander's technique to shoot with.