All language subtitles for 6. Working With Your Subject

There's this idea that in portraiture

it's the photographer's job to set the
subject at ease.

I don't believe that.

I believe that

I'm not doing

hidden photography here.

I'm not standing behind a building with
a long lens.

It's hard to be this subject.

But

I think there is a kind of,

I know, I'd feel comfortable if I'm
with a photographer that I know

can do

something relatively good.

That there's a kind of trust in that.

And I mean, I've been asked this
question over and over and over again

about, how do I set people ease?

I don't believe in sending people at
ease.

I believe that

they are coming to

this

sitting with whatever they can

do to present themselves.

That works in its own way.

Number one, number two,

usually in a photo sitting, I can
literally hear people

sigh with relief after five or ten
minutes a meeting, because I think

they relax within it, because they just
see that it's not going to be such a

big deal, and it isn't life.

By the way, it's just a photograph.

I check.

I don't like it.

I think it does interfere.

I think it's kind of rude to the
subject quite honestly, to be like.

But we used to take polaroids, and we
used to look at pullroads,

and then starts shooting,

working with film.

And inevitably, the picture was always
in the Polaroid.

You kind of went back, and you were
chasing the Polaroid over and over and

over again.

So on some level, to have it digital
now, and you're shooting, and maybe

you're checking it, but you have it

at the same time.

I think it's better

not to look at it so much.

I think it is

kind of rude.

I actually gotten the point where I
just go, oh, and then I go and I show

the subject at the same time, because I
feel like they should know what you're

looking at.

I remember,

in the first ten years, or fifteen
years of doing this, I didn't know when

to go home.

I mean, I didn't know when it was
supposed to be over.

I remember David felton, who wrote for

rolling stone, and he said, oh,

I have it, or you didn't say.

Haddy said, I had enough.

And I said, how do you know?

How do you know?

I mean, I didn't know when it was over.

Some of these longer stories,

you know, as you grow up,

you also realize it's sort of not fair
to the subject at,

you just need to,

I try to make it as painless as
possible for the subject.

I don't think,

especially if it's a

one session, I don't think it should go
longer than four hours.

I think if you try to do it as

fast as possible.

I mean, I'm just thinking about

photographing the queen.

I mean, the first time I photographed
her, I was given

catalogs and for clothing or jewelry,

you know, I was told it was going to be
Buckingham palice.

I walked the palace.

I had to figure out where I could shoot
her.

I had a half hour.

If the queen isn't going to come
through society,

you pretty much had to decide what
you're going to do.

And you have to make

planned, like,

every move was really plan.

I certainly

didn't

know what her temperament would be
like.

And she came in kind of really
irritated and strong, which I enjoyed

very much.

By the way.

It's like, she

was very feisty.

And she worked all the way through the
chute,

until it was, until it was over.

I mean, she had a great sense of duty,
the idea that you can spend a lot of

time with

your subject

these days

that's pretty much over.

I was once

backstage with the Bruce breeving
scene, and I

photographed him many times.

And this was just the first time I was
seeing him in a while.

And I went by myself,

and I was backstage right before

he was working on his song set, and

it was just us back there in the room
and taking pictures and workands, like,

and finally I said,

it's like, I'm here.

Am I here?

That's this feeler, you know, just
because I wonder from his experience,

because even though I was acting like I
wasn't there, I knew I was there,

because, like, I was having this kind
of.

And he said, no, no.

It's like, I know you're here.

It's like, you know, I know you're
here.

He's like, you know, yeah, yeah, you
know, it's like,

you don't really disappear.

Everyone knows you're there.

It's just how you conduct yourself and

what you do.

I love photographing

by myself, but

I get scared,

it's really, I get scared having to go
in and

sometimes be there by yourself with
everything going on.

And

I tell you, what I do do is sometimes I
go in

and meet someone and talk to them for a
long time, or in the house before I

bring in

what's going to happen.

I do think some of my better
photographs are done without other

people around.

I do think uglier is definitely an
advantage to it.

But sometimes

I hide and set up myself.

I feel more comfortable having the
setup because I feel like I can hide in

it and I can get back to observing,
because I'm such a non communicating.

It's hard for me to talk to people and
take pictures at the same time.

And sometimes I just like something
else going on and

distracts them, and I don't have to be
responsible for communicating to them that's.

But you know that all of these ways
were valid.

They all work.

I think every now and then

I break away from

the whole production

and go off by myself,

because you have to, you have to know
what you yourself are doing.

The Ben stellar shoot,

we were in Paris, and I thought it was
a good opportunity to Emily fashion photography

in Paris.

And we just look at all these different
fashion photographers.

Is fun to put

branches in his head, like Bruce
webber, who did a whole series of

models with

tree branches in their head.

And also Ben is, as you know, short.

So, and these models are like 615,

it was funny right away.

He's naturally funny, he's physically
funny.

There was one photograph where the
girls are in these

outrageous, ridiculous ball gowns, and
in this

bar in Paris, and he's

stepping on one other

on their clothes,

is there plays for him.

Very funny.

Not everyone likes to have their
photograph taken.

In fact, I kind of believe that

most people don't like to have their
photograph taken.

What it'll be a great exercise,

take a friend or a family member

that you feel is particularly

shy about having the photograph taken
and see what that experience is like,

and what it means to

take them through it