Looking over the work of Fazal Sheikh has inspired me to try to do a series of head portraits with a 6x6 Hasselblad. The portraits would have a shallow depth of field and be made with either the 150mm telephoto or the standard 80mm. I would shoot the pictures in available light at the the lens widest aperture. I want to do something similar to FS's work but with a slight bit more depth of field. I find some of Fazel Sheikh's portraits lack the depth of focus I prefer, I would add just a bit more focus to allow for an extremely sharp section in each portrait. I find the square format almost zen in its beauty for this type of head shot. I need to create teh sense of space around my subject as FS does in the sample below. Sometimes I shoot too tight and do not allow my portraits to breath.
Some of my photo ideas are rather extreme in their complexity and difficulty. This idea thou is relatively simple, I have done work like this before. I just need to devote myself to it and make sure I have enough 120mm Tri-x that I can shoot! I can work on the exact technique in the coming days, it should be be technically fairly easy to do this. I might try using a small round reflector to fill in shadows in this series. The trick is going to be to get me and my camera to my subjects and to then find compelling faces to photograph. Many photographers before FS used these similar techniques to tell the stories of their subjects, now it could be my turn.
Possible subjects for the portraits which could end up as 15 print box sets include:
1) The children and or the people of the Mae Sot garbage dump.
2) Muay Thai boxers from the Klong Toey slum.
3) The people of Klong Toey slum.
4) Freelance sex worker of beach road in Pattaya Thailand.
5) The migrant workers of Bangkok (from Cambodia, Laos, and Burma)
6) Young gay sex workers (hustlers?) who work with Western sex tourists. This project subject might work with the Toot Yung Gallery in Bangkok, which still might show my photography.
I think first I will start out with the boxers, shirtless with just there faces, preferably after a work out when they are sweaty and tired.
Some of my photo ideas are rather extreme in their complexity and difficulty. This idea thou is relatively simple, I have done work like this before. I just need to devote myself to it and make sure I have enough 120mm Tri-x that I can shoot! I can work on the exact technique in the coming days, it should be be technically fairly easy to do this. I might try using a small round reflector to fill in shadows in this series. The trick is going to be to get me and my camera to my subjects and to then find compelling faces to photograph. Many photographers before FS used these similar techniques to tell the stories of their subjects, now it could be my turn.
Possible subjects for the portraits which could end up as 15 print box sets include:
1) The children and or the people of the Mae Sot garbage dump.
2) Muay Thai boxers from the Klong Toey slum.
3) The people of Klong Toey slum.
4) Freelance sex worker of beach road in Pattaya Thailand.
5) The migrant workers of Bangkok (from Cambodia, Laos, and Burma)
6) Young gay sex workers (hustlers?) who work with Western sex tourists. This project subject might work with the Toot Yung Gallery in Bangkok, which still might show my photography.
I think first I will start out with the boxers, shirtless with just there faces, preferably after a work out when they are sweaty and tired.
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| Afghan girl born in exhile, Pakistan 1998 By Fazal Sheikh |
