The Difference

In my work, empathy is key. When I show up to a shoot, I need to quickly gain peoples’ trust to put them at ease and help them overcome the impulse to ‘pose’. I love to do this by clinking glasses. At events, I offer ‘cheers!’, and as someone returns it, I take their picture. This works with glasses, and with fist bumps and high fives. 

A photographer can be an active participant or an observer, but I often toggle between the two within a single shoot for greatest effect. At events I mingle and banter, eliciting reactions, ready to capture an unwitting smile or ebullient laughter. I become part of the process and inject some fun that ends up in the photograph. Other times, when it’s appropriate to disappear, I disappear completely. 

I particularly enjoy taking photos that evoke a timeless feel, as though they could have been taken long ago. To that effect, I often shoot in black and white for a nostalgic aura. Much of my current inspiration comes from the film sets of the nineteen fifties and sixties, when black and white filming gave way to color.