Portrait of my grandmother

Chriscrawfordphoto

Chriscrawfordphoto

Real Men Shoot Film.
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My grandma hates being photographed, and I had no good photographs of her. She is my only living grandparent, my mother's mother. I found this negative that I made on August 3, 2008 and scanned it. I like it, a lot.

grandma_8-31-08.jpg


Shot with an Olympus OM-4T and 85mm f2 Zuiko lens on Ilford HP-5 developed in D-76 1+1.
 
Nice photo. On another level everyone states that they hate to be photographed. It is your job to find a method to put them at ease and photograph them. With your ability I am certain that you will find the method that suits you and your subject best.
 
Great image. I like the way her reluctance to be photographed is depicted by her being in the window frame as kind of distancing device from your camera.
 
That's perfect. It makes me think of Mark Twain sitting under his wife's bedroom window writing her notes when she was on her deathbed; the doctors wouldn't let him in because he was too "excitable" and they thought he'd disturb her. This has a "hey... still here!" feel to it. In a good way.
 
Nice, Chris... in a world that emphasizes youth, beauty, materialism, high-tech, and instant gratification, it is nice to see someone younger honoring their grandmother.

I never had one, being the last in a long family line, so I can only imagine it must be special for you, hence, the respectful photo.:)
 
Wonderful Chris, it's a lovely portrait of your Grandmother. The use of the window and curtains as a frame is brilliant. Makes the photograph very "neighborly".

Now, since this is the critique forum let me ask you about cropping. When you make a print of this would it make a stronger image if you cropped in tighter on the window frame? Eliminating most of the house's siding and leaving a more vertical image.

I do like this photo. I wish I had a similar one of my Grandmother, but she exists mostly in my memory.

--michael
 
I have a shot of my wife's grandmother I made a few months before she passed and it is one of my favorite portraits I have ever taken. Of course she would probably hate it because, like most people, she did not like the way she looked, too old. What most don't realize is these images are the sparks to keep their memory alive and how treasured the images will be for many years to come. My favorite part of visiting her was the two old albums that lay beside her chair that contained images of all her children, her parents, their wedding images and her grandparents images. I could look through that album everytime I visited and still it would not get old.

Thanks for sharing Chris, these are frames that are worth more than gold.
 
That is a wonderful shot Chris. I wish that when I was first getting into photography that I hadn't been too reluctant to take 'people' photos. I sometimes felt like I was intruding for some reason, but the few shots I did get of my grandparents are all keepers, and help me to remember them as they were.

PF
 
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