Monday, March 30, 2015

"Forgotten Laughter" Series Thoughts

I have been thinking a lot lately about a photo project I plan to do on children living in poverty. The series is set in South East Asia and I will title it "Forgotten Laughter". I want to try to do a exhibition as well as a book with these pictures. This photography project will be dedicated to my father. I made a promise to dad, a vow, to do this work and I intend on keeping my word. Dad always worried about children, especially those who lived  in poverty. Doing this series of portraits is something my father understood as important and valuable.

I initially thought I would only do pictures with a 5x7 view camera, vertical standing portraits. I am now thinking that I might broaden the type of images I will use. Fazal Sheikh's wonderful work has inspired me to also try to do a series of square format head shots with a Hasselblad as well. Using the blad with roll film will allow me to get a variety of up close portraits, changes of expression, more dramatic lighting etc. I might do something like shoot 1/2 a roll (6 shots) or a full roll on each child, which would give me plenty of negs to choose from. I want to get a very shallow depth of field (focus) look so will probably use a my 150mm telephoto at the widest aperature.

Will experiment in the coming weeks with the blad and telephoto lens and post the results on this blog. I have 50 or so rolls of Tri-x 120mm in my freezer, I need to purchase another 30 or so before any major Asian trip. Buying 120mm Tri-x in Thai is very difficult if not impossible, so will have to carry everything with me. I might also be using 120mm Tri-x with the blad and ring flash if I work on the "Lost Innocence" series, so the more film I have the better.