Humanist and realist at the center of the approach
This portrait of my wife:
Carmen - 2021
I read absurd stuff proposed on the internet.
Photographers that define themselves educators recommending to go full auto with their cameras. To each his own but then don't come and talk to me about good photography.
Always it amazes me how many people I meet that don’t know how use their cameras manually. Let me say a thing: you are not going to take consistently great images on auto mode. If you want to express your inner voice you can’t think to rely on the compromise that your camera decides.
Now I have to clarify a thing, before being misunderstood. There are times and situation that using auto settings can be OK, but I would not recommend that all the time. And this is the reason why you should know - before anything - how to photograph in full manual.
As you know I am a photo coach and I teach to photographers from any part of the world. Many beginners coming to me have the idea to keep the ISO as low as possible and so many pretending to make street photography use most of the time Aperture priority… and I see them failing when it comes to make quick shots.
I believe that one of the greatest lessons that Joel Meyerowitz has given us is that in the street lifting the camera, aiming and shooting at the last moment is saving for street photography. I have adopted that idea completely and even a photographer like Daido Moriyama has taught us about the same.
Humanistic and realist photography requires a spontaneous-oriented approach and I have to make sure that everything is focused on that result. If I wait too long, I reveal myself. And my intention to take a picture of you. You can still have a photo but it will be a forced and most likely a not spontaneous one.
As anyone who follows me knows, my photographic attention is human-oriented. In all its facets and dimensions. I believe that photographers of my type do psychological rather than photographic work most of the time.
Now, in the case of this portrait of Carmen, my wife, my intention to cut and focus on her eyes has prevailed. I was not looking for the beautiful portrait but the portrait with a meaning. In getting so close I wanted to make the image that I was going to gather an expressive intensity and not so much think about the compositional and aesthetic aspect.
To probe the soul and the emotions of those in front of me, through the lens and my gaze.
Emotional.
Humanist and realist.
