Lightmancer
Legend
- Location
- Sunny Frimley
- Name
- Bill Palmer
There's a really interesting story here about six photographers shooting the same guy who told each of them a different story. The resultant images vary widely, as their portrayal of him was influenced by what they were told.
I have written before about my friend Nick. We have a project going whereby I shoot him once a year. Each time he gives me absolute control - location, clothes, pose, etc as well as which shots I pick. I tend to shoot 200-400 shots then whittle them down to 8-12 "keepers" each year. Nick never sees my rejects, so what he ends up with is a snapshot of my vision of him at a moment in time.
Here are five shots:
2011:
NG19 par Lightmancer, on ipernity
2012:
Nick 10 par Lightmancer, on ipernity
2013:
Moody par Lightmancer, on ipernity
2014:
Nick X-E1 Abiguity Mono par Lightmancer, on ipernity
2015:
Nick September 2015 8 par Lightmancer, on ipernity
(For the technically minded, it's Leica M7, Leica MP, Fuji X-E1, Fuji X-E1, Fuji X-Pro1)
So, what's interesting is that what you are actually seeing here is my selection of one shot, in most cases long after the event, to illustrate this thread. In the past lustrum, I'm sure Nick won't mind me saying that he has divorced, changed jobs and moved from central London to the coast. For my part over the same period I have remarried and changed jobs too (not moved yet!). My point is that both the subject and the photographer have altered over the years and to further complicate matters in editing and selecting photos today my view of the past is by defintion influenced by my life in the present.
Where is all this going? It's made me realise again that the image you take and then subsequently choose to edit and present to the world truly says as much about you as it does about your subject. I have long been interested in something called "Photo Therapy" (not to be confused with "phototherapy"); this is the use of photographs and photography in psychotherapy to help understand and help the subject. I first became interested when I divorced a few years ago. I used photography as a point of focus (no pun intended) to help me keep myself busy and to relax. It was my most fertile period for street photography - I had no qualms about sticking my camera up the nose of a passer by to get my shot. I deliberately used a basic camera - at first a Leica IIIc then later a Leica IID from the 1920s because it was as much about the process as the pastime or the picture.
Months later, a friend of mine was browsing through a portfolio of my shots from that period in my life. He made the observation that there was a "detachment" in many of the images, and often doors or portals, with a woman passing through or present. I am no psychologist, but it struck me then, once that had been pointed out, that the photos I took then spoke to my mental state better than I was able to express it by other means or in other media, thus:
IIIc Guildford 6 par Lightmancer, on ipernity
So be careful when you press that shutter - you may be revealing more of yourself than you think...
I have written before about my friend Nick. We have a project going whereby I shoot him once a year. Each time he gives me absolute control - location, clothes, pose, etc as well as which shots I pick. I tend to shoot 200-400 shots then whittle them down to 8-12 "keepers" each year. Nick never sees my rejects, so what he ends up with is a snapshot of my vision of him at a moment in time.
Here are five shots:
2011:
NG19 par Lightmancer, on ipernity
2012:
Nick 10 par Lightmancer, on ipernity
2013:
Moody par Lightmancer, on ipernity
2014:
Nick X-E1 Abiguity Mono par Lightmancer, on ipernity
2015:
Nick September 2015 8 par Lightmancer, on ipernity
(For the technically minded, it's Leica M7, Leica MP, Fuji X-E1, Fuji X-E1, Fuji X-Pro1)
So, what's interesting is that what you are actually seeing here is my selection of one shot, in most cases long after the event, to illustrate this thread. In the past lustrum, I'm sure Nick won't mind me saying that he has divorced, changed jobs and moved from central London to the coast. For my part over the same period I have remarried and changed jobs too (not moved yet!). My point is that both the subject and the photographer have altered over the years and to further complicate matters in editing and selecting photos today my view of the past is by defintion influenced by my life in the present.
Where is all this going? It's made me realise again that the image you take and then subsequently choose to edit and present to the world truly says as much about you as it does about your subject. I have long been interested in something called "Photo Therapy" (not to be confused with "phototherapy"); this is the use of photographs and photography in psychotherapy to help understand and help the subject. I first became interested when I divorced a few years ago. I used photography as a point of focus (no pun intended) to help me keep myself busy and to relax. It was my most fertile period for street photography - I had no qualms about sticking my camera up the nose of a passer by to get my shot. I deliberately used a basic camera - at first a Leica IIIc then later a Leica IID from the 1920s because it was as much about the process as the pastime or the picture.
Months later, a friend of mine was browsing through a portfolio of my shots from that period in my life. He made the observation that there was a "detachment" in many of the images, and often doors or portals, with a woman passing through or present. I am no psychologist, but it struck me then, once that had been pointed out, that the photos I took then spoke to my mental state better than I was able to express it by other means or in other media, thus:
IIIc Guildford 6 par Lightmancer, on ipernity
So be careful when you press that shutter - you may be revealing more of yourself than you think...
