George Weir Photography

No, this is not a diatribe about unscrupulous people & companies “lifting” photographs from my site, and oh yes I do reserve the right to post a lengthy post on this subject in the future

Rather it’s a few of my thoughts, well beliefs really, about what we, as photographers, do when we raise a camera to our faces. For me, there is no difference in attitude whether one is photographing clients, guests at a wedding or strangers in the street.

Do we sneak up and attempt to “steal” an image before anyone sees us?

Or do we dash in and out of spaces with all the speed and grace of a paparazzi?

If you answered paparazzi please take a few moments, actually you’ll need many more, to recall the last “good” image you saw taken by one, a paparazzi.

If you are an advocate of the “sneak & steal” method of grabbing unposed images of people I suggest another approach which I believe will result in images which go beyond being snapshots.

I have believed, for many years,  that in order to obtain a “good” photograph of someone, whether it be a posed or unposed portrait or a simply a documentary record,  there must be a relationship between the subject and the photographer. The relationship does not have to be formal, in fact I believe that better results are often obtained if the relationship is somewhat informal. I don’t feel a need to be “that close” to my subjects”,  however I do prefer to obtain a subject’s permission to take something from them. The consent does not need to written or spoken, in fact in real life it is often unspoken and is often conveyed merely by a look or by attitude. In my seminars and classes I describe this action as looking for the “implied consent”, meaning that my subjects in addition to not feeling  threatened, embarrassed or in any way belittled by my actions actually do give me their permission, or consent, to capture their likeness.  Should I feel that the subject would prefer that I not shoot, click, or “take” their image - what do I have to gain from persisting? Not a lot, in fact nothing, for by my actions I may, to some extent arguably,  have influenced the scene and am therefore I have not recorded or documented a scene, I have in fact  manufactured one. This is not my aim as a documentary photographer!

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks in England some of the time has been on business most of it though has been occupied with family matters, however I have had a few opportunities to go out and “find” a few images for myself. I believe that the image below illustrates what I have been discussing. The lady with the umbrella was conscious of my presence, she was aware that I had a camera in my hands. She knew that I was using it and, she even nodded her head, in approval I like to think, moments after I shot this frame. No, there was no sequence, just one frame, that’s all it took and the picture wasn’t stolen:) In fact she gave me her consent the “make” the image.

Now, the day after I shot this image I had the pleasure of viewing an exhibit of Don McCullin’s work at the National Media Museum in Bradford, Yorkshire. I had mentioned, well more than mentioned I stressed, the exhibit, during the “Ultimate Wedding Photojournalism Seminar” with Jeff Ascough the previous weekend in Manchester. I believe that I said “If you are at all passionate about your work as a photojournalist you owe it to yourself to make every effort possible to see this exhibition”. Those of you who have read previous posts of mine will maybe recall that I not only hold Mr. McCullin in very high regard but that I have also said on more than one occasion that his images, for many years, have had a profound effect on how I see and photograph people. In fact if you’ve ever been to one of my seminars you may remember me saying, and here I paraphrase Don McCullin, “If you can’t feel anything for your work, how the hell are you ever going to get anyone to feel anything when they look at your photographs?”

These words met us as we entered the exhibit!  and believe me it only got better from there!

About half way through the exhibit I encountered more of McCullin’s words;

“Stealing pictures of these people with a long lens was not my style. I wanted to be close to them, to feel their plight and to convey the emotion of contact with them. I wanted their trust and to become their voice”.

I sat on a bench, copied the above on a piece of paper, looked again at the images for a long while, then rose and asked Jeff if he felt as humbled as I did. Suffice it to say, we were both humbled, very humbled. (Jeff’s words on this are here)

I wrote down a few more words which I think not only are a validation for me, of my approach but also may serve as guidelines for others;

“I don’t see people as my prey. I want to feel the confrontation’s been agreed upon between myself and the subject. When you look at the subject of one of my photographs there’s no hostility. There’s usually a feeling of openness and trust. I’ve allowed myself to look at the subject and I’ve allowed the subject to look at me” Don McCullin, Homecoming 1979.

A few images, some stolen, some not:)

The dog gave me his consent!

The policemen were well aware of me, I’d been standing there for a couple of minutes.

Both the builders had seen me from across the street and had forgotten about me.

Stolen!

To be continued!