Don’t Look at Me and Smile

                          Author - Alison Ball

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Don’t Look at Me and Smile

I recently watched a documentary ‘Alive in the Face of Death’ by the British photographer Rankin and while I was watching one of his subjects said that he had his photograph taken but that it wasn’t really him.  I thought about the ways in which different photographers manage subjects, Rankin, a great photographer, directs his subject what to do and the expression he is after but for me that surely is the photographers interpretation and not the subjects true personality.  My style is to take candid photographs; one that I think captures someone’s personality, whether they are concentrating, having a conversation or enjoying friends company, the candid shot for me is the true representation of them.  On the other end of the scale you have photographers like Mike Aldridge whose photography is very much directed and staged, yet because he works in the fashion industry it seems to fit, probably because it is what the model is wearing and not the model we are interested in.  The latest trend that captures a person’s true and real personality is the ‘Selfie’.  It has become a global craze, the Smartphone self-portrait.  Teens in the street to the movie stars at a première, it’s the thing to do, show people who you are.

I do a lot of Business Biographies, which are a series of images that show the people who work there in the environment that they work in, their interactions.  The images are a natural reflection of the business, which clients feel comfortable with and are reassuring, they know who is answering the phone and what they look like, they know who is taking their order or organising a service. Reassuring in our faceless digital world.  So the big guys have their style and I have mine, one I am very comfortable with.

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