Ian was the winner of our recent “Best of 2008 (over three years experience)” contest in the Photo.net net Wedding forum. His image was a candid moment while a bride was getting ready. It is a wonderful example of a quiet moment caught perfectly that tells a story from the wedding day. One judge in the wedding contest described the image with these words:
“I feel that this is a beautiful candid capture which captures the preparation and emotions of the pre-wedding moments.”
His candid and environmental portraits are what caught my eye specifically. Walking up to a stranger and asking them to stare straight into your lens is a skill that many photographers find it difficult to master. To be able to do that and have the subject be comfortable enough to allow one to come away with good images in addition is even harder.
Ian was born in Liverpool, but grew up in Picton, Ontario, Canada. He spent years as a freelancer in film production before going back to grad school then moving to Cambodia in 1994. While working at The Cambodia Daily newspaper he spent time with his photojournalist co-workers and got interested in photography. Later working for an international ad agency which had lots of regional travel, he would always drag along his camera. After a 2001 return to Canada, he switched to photography full time.
To be blunt about it, how do you get strangers to be comfortable enough with you as a photographer to stare right into your lens? This is something that is very hard for a lot of photographers and is something that they wish they could master. Talk a little bit about your process for approaching people when you are out shooting.
IAN: When I was starting out, a photographer told me that a good portrait is like the extension of a conversation, so I try to make a connection with the subject beforehand. Even with the quick shots, I always ask if it’s OK. I’m not one of those people who can just whip out the Canon and start blasting away, I have to make sure we’re both comfortable. If I see an interesting person or scene I’ll just pull over and chat. You can feel when it’s OK to shoot, it’s like you’re on the inside looking out.
In Cambodia, even though I can get by with the language, nothing beats having a native speaker with you to help smooth the way. I do this from time to time when I’ve made an effort to get somewhere and I don’t want to waste time. It’s a great way to increase your hit rate while learning a huge amount about the place you’re in.
Your photography seems to take place in all sorts of locations and cultures across the world, what effect does this have on the way you approach people? Does it change the way you approach image making itself?
IAN: I take the same approach everywhere I go. I know it sounds trite, but people are just people. Although their financial and cultural realities are different, there are just as many commonalities. They like to laugh, talk about food and the weather. They worry about their kids. I can do all that.
My portfolio is a bit of an illusion. I travel a lot, but much of it has been in Southeast Asia over the past 20 years. I spent six years full time in Cambodia and have been back many times. My Southeast Asia stuff often gets filed under the heading “Travel Photography”, but if I took the shot a block from my house, is it really?
As an aside, one of the things I love about shooting weddings in such a multicultural town as Toronto is that I get to experience another country for a day. To me it’s like taking a little trip without leaving town. And you can drink the tap water.
When you go out shooting for the day, what gear do you usually take along with you?
IAN: From my experience, the more I take into the field, the less I shoot. For a decent environmental portrait, anything over 50mm is too long in my opinion. The Cambodian images were either taken in the nineties with an EOS and a 20-35mm lens, or for the 2004-06 ones, I used a Pentax 645N with 45mm and 75mm lenses (equal to 28mm and 50mm in 35mm camera terms.) I’m not a gearhead or a pixel peeper, but good lenses really do make a huge difference.
As my gear collection grows, I limit what I take out. For day to day kid jobs I take two 5D bodies, 24-70mm, 35/1.4, 85/1.8 and a flash with diffuser just in case. That will get me out of almost any situation. For weddings I add a third body, a 50/1.4, 70-200 2.8 IS and a 24/1.4. If I’m shooting for a magazine, I take everything and then some, because whatever you leave at home is the thing you need. Every time.
When you make these images, are you heading out with a plan? Do you say “Today I am going to look for to take photos of.”? Or do you just record what shows up in front of you that day._
IAN: No plan. I just roam and look for interesting characters. Whenever I go out ‘hunting’ for something specific, I never see it unless I’ve researched a particular shot and have it waiting for me. Usually they end up stiff anyway. Some of my best Cambodian portraits were made when I went out looking for something specific, only to find it wasn’t possible once I got out there. Invariably something else appears. So I just go with the flow and throw myself out there to see what happens. In rural areas it’s best to get up very early and be out as the sun comes up. There is a huge amount of early morning activity and the light is fantastic. It’s also a great feeling to have a bunch of nice photos in the can by 8 a.m.
You have to be patient and just enjoy the process for what it is. It’s like fishing, even a day on the water with no fish is still better than a day at the office.
Many photographers these days use photoshop for various adjustments to tone and saturation. Do you take advantage of these tools? If so, what filters or adjustments to you typically find most useful? If not, why not?
IAN: I use very minimal post processing. I haven’t touched a saturation slider in a couple of years. Nowadays with digital I add a bit of contrast and ‘vibrancy’ which leaves skin tones intact. Often I’ll apply USM 20-60-0 or some variation on that for a little local contrast. The Cambodia stuff is all on film, but I haven’t done that much to the scans. I think I use less post production than 95% of what I see around here.
I spend an inordinate amount of time looking and waiting for nice light and backgrounds. I like very directional soft sources, so under trees, or inside with light coming though a window really works for me. Soft light coming straight in from one direction, being cut off on the sides and top is my favorite. I often have to convince my clients that an overcast day is the best for flattering light. Blinding sunlight and howling rain are the enemies, anything else I can deal with. Once I find the right light and backdrop, the colors and contrast pop naturally. I shoot as wide open as possible to really make the eyes and face jump out. Look at Steve McCurry’s portraits, he’s the master of this, shooting in alleyways and dark little corners during monsoon season. All you need is enough to light the eyes and you’re good to go.
What is the most difficult aspect of creating this environmental portrait photography for you personally?
IAN: I find them pretty easy. I never studied photography, I just took it up while living in a fascinating little backwater. I was working at a newspaper in Phnom Penh and hung out with hardened photojournalists who took shots like this all day long. So I just bought a camera and a wide angle and started photographing people I met while traveling around the country. I would get feedback from great photographers, and inspiration from seeing their stuff all the time. It was an amazing environment, especially back then when Cambodia was emerging from decades of war and people really hadn’t had much contact with foreigners unless they were Vietnamese soldiers or aid workers. I didn’t realize till I left that people would find these shots interesting and hard to get.
For me the difficult aspect of these Cambodian portraits is more practical. They take an enormous amount of time and resources, but they really can’t be traded for food, which has been my immediate concern as I get my career rolling. I haven’t done any of this kind of work since 2006. Now that I’m on my feet with the kids and wedding stuff, I am heading off to India for the next 6 weeks. I reckon if there’s a place with a ton of portraits lying around, it’s India. In May I have a job in southern Namibia, so I’m counting on some opportunities there as well.
And finally, the question we ask everyone: While this article is primarily directed towards your portrait photography, there are many other genres represented in your portfolio. With that in mind, what would be your ‘dream project’ if you could work on anything in the world?
IAN: I would love to have the freedom to do a long term documentary project in some corner of the globe. (Preferably not to far from the equator.) To go back and shoot every year, get deeper into the subject and practice my skills without worrying about day to day realities like budgeting. It would combine environmental portraits, straight documentary along the lines of my Cambodian kickboxing series, as well as some landscapes, which I would shoot on film.
Can that all be arranged? You pick the place.
Some Examples of Ian’s Work
EOS 5, 20-35mm, consumer Fuji flim
This was taken in 1997, about a year after I started shooting. I didn’t know anything technical about photography whatsoever, but I carried my EOS everywhere. I was hanging out at Angkor Wat. It was off season so there was nobody around. I started chatting with this old guy who was paid 50 cents a day to sweep up leaves and keep Preah Khan temple tidy. After about 20 minutes I asked if I could take his photo and as I put the camera up to my eye, a butterfly landed on his knee. This is one of my first decent photos, and while technically it’s not great, it showed me that if I took my time with a subject good photos could fall out of trees.
2006, Pentax 645N, 75mm, Portra 160NC
I had gone to a small village outside of Battambang, Cambodia to see a huge snake. The old man who raised it had died, so his family had inherited the beast and lived with it in a tiny house. When I got there it was at work at a temple fair in another province. The oldest person there was the 15 year old grand daughter. I noticed this photo on the wall, so I asked her just to hold it. While it’s not the shot I set out to make, I like it for what it says about Cambodia. The girl is open and trusting of someone who has just walked unannounced onto their property. The photo she’s holding is obviously an comp of three shots, the snake, the deceased granddad and a field of flowers, probably from somewhere in England. In Cambodian wedding albums nearly every shot is comped like this, except more over the top, if you can imagine that.
2006, Pentax 645N, 45mm, Astia
I made the trek out to a small town on the Mekong that supposedly had nice old French architecture. (I’m a sucker for decaying colonialism.) The town itself was very sleepy. I found this row of buildings near the river and just hung around. Some kids appeared and I chatted with them for a while, made a couple of shots and left. I posted this shot in a several online forums and a couple of years later got this message from a French Khmer guy: “Oh! This is my ancestral house! Built by my great-grandfather in 1922 I’ve passed my childhood here. My family was chased from this house by the Khmer rouge in 1970. It is now occupied by someone else. I’m so sad to see it in a so bad shape!” The guy had been kicked out of there by the Khmer Rouge and hadn’t been back but saw my photo and there it was. ‘Incroyable’.
2006, Pentax 645N, 75mm lens, 160NC
I had gone to the countryside to photograph a tattoo artist, but he wasn’t interested in having his photo taken. Outside the tattoo shack was this very skinny guy who looked like Mr Spock. He had a little mobile restaurant which he had pushed all the way from Battambang, about 20km north. I ate some of his noodles. He was fine with me taking his picture. It was very bright, but we were under a huge tree so the light was nice. He had a tattoo on his throat, so in a way the original theme of the exercise was preserved.
Ian .
2005, Pentax 645N, 45mm lens, 160NC
I saw this ancient woman shuffling along the side of the road outside of Kompong Chhnang, Cambodia. She was the oldest, tiniest person I had ever seen. She said she was “more than 80”, but some locals told us later that she was “much more than 90”. We have no idea what she has lived through to get to that age in Cambodia. We didn’t talk much as her voice was barely audible. For this I basically broke all my rules about making a connection. I just put my camera in her face and took her photo. Sometimes you just have to shut up and shoot.
2008, Canon 5D, 24-70mm @ 50mm, f2.8
This is an example of an environmental portrait I do at my day job as a kid photographer. I don’t use a studio or lighting. I show up on the kid’s home turf and wing it. It was extremely overcast, but that works for me. I just got the largest chunk of open sky to my back and used it as a natural softbox. which made the colors really pop. I’m always looking for even, soft light and good illumination in the eyes. Sometimes having a subject move their head a couple of centimeters can make all the difference. I’m also always on the lookout for interesting backgrounds that I can throw out of focus. The banyan tree here was nice option. I don’t think kids have to smile to make an effective portrait. This is a very happy kid, but I just captured her in a quieter moment away from her siblings. One minute later she was laughing on the beach again.
Ian .
2008, Canon 5D, 35/1.4, f2
Another work image from a Canadian wedding. The bride had this whole natural retro thing going on that worked so well. They had just pulled up in a classic car. It was raining a bit, but they were under a carport, and the directional light was perfect. I’m not really into setting up bridal portraits, so when something real like this appears I am very happy to grab it. While this is shot under very overcast conditions, it doesn’t look it. I just position myself with the light at my back and work with what’s there. The 35/1.4 is amazing at finding light you didn’t know was there.
