'I don't think I've ever photographed anybody, no matter how self-assured or comfortable they are, who is completely real and natural at the moment they realise a camera is being pointed at them. This is not always a bad thing: often the camera is a part of the reality that is being captured, and a photograph of someone as they wish to present themselves in a photograph can be as revealing as a candid photograph of someone who is unaware that they are being photographed. In most of my portraits, the subject is aware that I am there. If I have succeeded in photographing them seemingly unaware, it is because I spent much of my time as a shy, insecure teenager reading people's expressions, trying to see something of what they were thinking. I believe the key to taking natural portraits when the subject knows that a camera is being pointed at them is to wait, camera to eye, for the tiniest change in their expression and to recognise that change as the instant when their mind has moved to something else - when they have, for the slightest moment, forgotten - and then push the button. But then you must wait again, because the click of the shutter is a reminder, and a mask is raised once more.' |
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