the weirdest portrait session...

jonasv

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Good morning folks... wanted to share something, I had a very absurd photography experience yesterday, and now I need to vent it 🙂

I work for the university paper, and there's going to be an interview with Robert Fisk in the upcoming issue. The interview was already done, but we needed three or four photographs to accompagny it (the text was several pages long). We (me, plus interviewer/assistant/driver) were supposed to meet Mr. Fisk for an hour while having tea (he's British allright!), but there was a last moment change of plans (can't blame him, the man was in Beirut, London, Belgium and New Zealand, all in one week), so we were supposed to meet him yesterday an hour before his lecture on the Middle East - "The Great War of Civilisation" - at the concert hall in Ghent, Belgium. We were supposed to meet him at 7 pm - the lecture started at 8 - and we would have ten-fifteen minutes to take some photos and to clear up some last issues about the interview. I thought I could take the man to a few different rooms/hallways and set up my flash for some varied photographs.

Well, we waited there for about an hour - the man arrived at 7.50 pm. Even worse, the organisers didn't notify us (which they were supposed to). We called Robert Fisk on his cellphone and he said we could have three minutes if we were really fast. The way to get to him through the backstage was blocked so we had to work our way through the crowd, and at 7.55 finally found him right in front of the stage, reading to climb up and start his lecture. Since he was five minutes early, and not all of the public was seated yet, we figured we could take still try to get to him. We rushed across the concert hall (passing by some surprised security guys) and when we reached him he was a bit a surprised but very friendly.

So, I started taking some pictures. In advance I had planned to get some intimate pictures to best suit the interview. Now, we were there, standing right in front of the stage - some technicians to our right, and about 1500 people to our left, watching his and mine every move. Talk about intimate! After shooting about ten pictures I realised I of course couldn't get three or four varied photographs in that same spot, so I politely asked if he could step out into the hallway for just a minute, and so he did. I quickly took some more photos... there was one more photo I wanted to take, of him seated on the ground, but I didn't dare to ask since the ground was quite dirty and he was in a hurry to get on stage. He said "You're not taking the picture I would take. Y'know what I would do?" and he sat down on the ground. Great!

So, I'm happy I don't get nervous quickly. I wasn't nervous at all, though I couldn't think quite clearly either because of the rush and the speed everything was happening at (we spotted him at 7.55 pm, he climbed up on the stage at 7.58 pm, everything we said and the photos I took all happened in less than three minutes). No clear thinking, no thinking of technical and compositional rules... the subject and the light was everything I could think of...

I'm developed the negatives and I'm now scanning them. I know I didn't get anything great, but I did the best I could under the circumstances, and that's that. I will post some results in an hour or so. Sorry for the rant, I guess I just needed to share some of the vibe running through my veins when something like that happens...
 
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That sounds not only like a great portrait session Jonas, but also a lot of fun and well worth sharing and keeping it in the 'battle' stories section 🙂

Congrats !

>He said "You're not taking the picture I would take. Y'know what I would do?" and he sat down on the ground.<

I guess you were quite shocked with this 😀

Oscar
 
Great story. Great work! If you read about some of the great portrait sessions, quite a few of them were teetering on disaster.
 
Very nice story. And one of the nicest "rants" in a longtime.

Mr. Fisk sounds like "Quite a Sport!".
 
Thanks! What surprised me in a very pleasant way was the way he talked to us - he didn't regard us as some little brats that came to disturb his concentration for some unimportant local student paper - he saw us as fellow journalists.

When he sat down on the ground he mumbled something along the lines of "you know... this picture is real.. cause as journalists, sitting around waiting is part of the job.. i've to do it all the time.. (smiles) and you guys as well, sorry for being late, but that's how it goes.."
 
ok, so I have some quick scans. These are not the final images, contrast is out of whack on most of the scans, I need to readjust them a bit more.. Did I mention the light was horrible? I mean, there barely was any light at all.. had to shoot wide open and at 6400 ISO - didn't have time to pull out the flash & sync cable, nor the 50/1.2. I didn't exspect so little light.

The 35mm shots are on the Bessa with 35/2.5 mounted, others on the nikon F4s & 85/2 AI.
































haven't scanned all the negatives yet. No spectacular images, I know, but it'll do. I did the best I could so I'm not gonna blame myself. I learned a lot. Cheers!
 
Looks like everything worked out well. I met Fisk about 15 years ago. He was by far the the friendlist person in a mob of high-strung reporters. It certainly helps when the portrait subject is good-natured.
 
You managed to get some really great shots there. And I particularly liked reading the story of how you got them. I am currently working my way through The Great War for Civilization. They say that a photograph is worth a thousand words. In this case, I'd say that each of your photographs is worth 40 or 50 thousand of Fisk's words!!! It's a really big book!!! Thanks for sharing the story and your results.
 
jvx said:
No spectacular images, I know, but it'll do. I did the best I could so I'm not gonna blame myself. I learned a lot. Cheers!
Not spectacular ? That's not necessary: spectacular images are for food commercials. These are very nice photos that show a lot of the quiet character that you describe in Fisk. I like them very much. And I'm jealous you had an interview with him 🙂


Peter.
 
Great shots JVX !!!

I am particularly inspired by the fact they were done with the Bessa R, and C35 2.5. This is my current "best camera" and I really enjoy using it.

Keep up the good work and best regards to all.

Bill K.
 
Very good, Jonas! And a good story for the grandkids! 🙂

Dang, I wish I was still in uni or HS and working for the newspaper. I never did anything like that; I was interested in completely different, non-photography, things in my days. Now I don't have the time or the connections to get into touch with other, big(ger) named photographers or to shoot venues like you did. I'm kinda envious. 😛
 
Nice one JVX, for me, portraiture is about capturing something of the essence of the indivdual and I think several of the shots do that very well.

I enjoyed your description of the day, I always feel a sense of exhillaration that even though events conspire against me, yet I still bag the shot!

I particularly like 1,3,4 & 7 ...Please post some more if you have them.
 
Jonas,

As an art director for a university publication, I understand your situation. You made the best out of what could have been a total disaster. I wish all of my freelance shooters were as aggressive and as quick thinking as you were in this situation. I could easily get a four page layout for my magazine with a strong full page opener and a few supporting shots out of what you posted here.

Good work. Pat yourself on the back for that one.

Jonathan
 
Thanks for all the great comments! I finished scanning, and the other pictures are mediocre at best and probably not worth posting, except perhaps the one of Fisk sitting on the floor, well, because...






I like the light here, but a back is a back, and even if it's Robert Fisk's, it's still boring.





Going to try and rescan this, cause I don't know why it came out even grainier than the other photos.












I really love working for the university paper... I only started doing it very recently. It's just about fifteen-twenty students running it, all by ourselves, with a very limited budget. If I may say so myself, the standard of our (monthly) magazine is quite high. And it's a lot of fun!
 
You need to stop being so humble, and believe in your photography. You have some really terrific shots here. Maybe in your head, you envisioned having all that time to set up the perfect lighting, and get some ideal 'perfect' shots. Quite to the contrary, I think the circumstances capture Fisk's hectic life better than the artificially setup shots you may have gotten otherwise. I love the semi-silhouette shot of his face, and the image of him seated. The grain looks terrific to me. I also rather like the one of him looking down (going over his notes maybe?). Great work.
 
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