scrap the plan
Portraiture is about capturing the moments that surround movement and emotion.
For the longest time I thought portrait photography was super boring and borderline formulaic, and to certain degree I still believe that to be true. Recently I’ve found a sweet spot with environmental portraiture, working with a creative partner (model) in scene to tell a story of the moment. One of my favorite creative partners is Romeli, I’ve been able to work with her a few times over the last few years. We’ll typically use a loose concept I have to create a series of portraits. For context, when I say “loose” , I’m referring to how concrete the concept is, I feel it’s important to allow space for improvisation and spontaneity.
For example, nothing with this session went according to plan, and that was probably for the better.
I’ll share a quick overview of the scenarios:
First location was completely overcrowded due to a street festival
This caused us to find a new location, which was better than the original place
Funny enough, I only used 1 image created at that location, it was more or less the “warm-up” session.
In search of a place for a wardrobe change we found some amazing brownstones
A majority of the keepers came from this location
It started to downpour, and we were planning to work in Central Park
This created a whole new dynamic for us because rainy day portraits are absolutely beautiful, especially in black and white
So yeah, by keeping things somewhat loose and being agile we created a set of photos that are probably better than what we would’ve created had things gone according to plan.
Lastly, you may have noticed that I refer to Romeli as my creative partner and not simply a “model”, that’s because she’s an equal contributor to the project. I’m documenting her movements and reactions to the locations, she’s posing and providing the visual narrative that you’re seeing. It’s all a collaboration, in my humble opinion.
How you all enjoy these photos!
