What is your relationship to your subjects?

Interesting question.

I am married but no kids. I have no siblings and parents died years ago. My wife's family is same other than she has one sister who we see occasionally. We have a small, close circle of friends. However, although I used to shoot a lot of weddings and portraits part-time pro, I don't shoot many portraits or people shots (other than a bit of street) these days.

My main interests are travel and landscapes. I live in East Anglia / work in City of London and I year for more regular escapes to the hills and mountains of my native north west of England and other more rugged, wild places.

Consequently, the frustration and boredom I find when trying to track down somewhere that appeals to me in Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire is probably down to the fact that I have no relationship with these places - aside from they are where I live and commute from.
 
Trust!

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Sometimes I have a strong relationship with my subjects, sometimes not...

Tuffy, here, seems to be the boss-cocky where I had my front muffler patched, so I could pass my rego check just before Christmas. He's a cool guy and all but, honestly, if he wasn't I wouldn't have cared that much. Hell, I didn't even care if my front muffler was patched that well, or at all. I just wanted the piece of paper so I could get my car registered...


So that's subject relations number 1. Can I improve? I think not.

#2 is...

This little, um, beggar (or his or her friends and family) visits the grevillia outside my bedroom window only on mornings I want or need to sleep in. I think they're gorgeous and wonderful and colourful. Often I'd like to shoot them. Mostly with cameras but some times, after a nasty midnight 'till dawn shift, .....some other way. Yet like it or not, there's a relationship there.

And thirdly, here's a friend of mine...

I know some of her back-story and some of her life's story. She's a good friend. I have a much closer relationship here, but that's in the nature of things: of course I can have a better relationship with someone who is a person I know than I might with a long-billed mascot or a wild bird who sups on my flowers.

I enjoy taking photos of all of them. I enjoy talking to my friend V rather more than the other two, though, even if sometimes she's not quite as colourful. (However, I'll be fair and give V her due - she can and does dress very colourfully and, unlike most, she can bring it off! I'll credit - or blame - her Italian background...)

...Mike
 
Sparrow said:
... is 'front muffler' a bit of aussie slang then?
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I'd love to say "yes" but, unfortunately, it's a big "no" (at least in this instance). I needed someone to custom-fabricate an expansion box, aft of the exausts, to replace the corroded POS that was there since Toyota no longer had the parts for my (31-year-old) car. I really can't complain - the muffler place probably fabricated it more cheaply than the price of a genuine part, plus they had a long-billed Corella named Tuffy who hid under a sheet while reviling me with swear-words.

What could be better?

My personal answer was "very little".

...Mike
 
I think one's relationship with the camera/lens is as important as with the subjects. If you aren't happy with the camera, you're not going to be happy with the photos it captures.

So before the subject, one must have a relationship with one's camera/lens.
 
Hsg said:
Beside the family/friends photos, when you photograph random strangers or even landscapes or wildlife, do you have a relationship with those subjects?

By relationship I mean, to relate to, to identify with, to be one with the subject. For example not seeing yourself as a separate entity from what you're photographing. For example, when you photograph people on the street, are you photographing strangers or people that you feel you know and people who are no different from you?

I hope I'm making sense. But basically do you or can you photograph random strangers on the street, with the same feelings as you photograph your own family and friends?
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I don't think that much. I just shoot.

If a pix is great, whether family or not, it goes in the portfolio or hopefully placed with a public collection.
 
Bob Michaels said:
I definitely feel some relationship with those I photograph, even those who I have never met and know that the relationship may only last for a few seconds. It definitely is a personal thing for me. I always want to know that if our paths should ever cross again, both of us would view that second experience as a positive. .....
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In December 2013, I photographed a stranger in the street of a small Cuban town. I smiled, she smiled, we chatted and learned a bit about each other.

In December 2014, I returned to that town and did an extensive interview with her and shot some photos for my current project. We got along well and I returned socially a few days later. We communicated by e-mail after I returned to the US.

Last Friday, I flew back to Cuba so we could spend the weekend in this great little fishing village that we discovered we both like. She is meeting me in Havana in 4 weeks.

This is Yordanka serving me lunch in her house during the December interview.

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Here she is at the beach last weekend in Gibara, a little fishing village on Cuba's north coast.

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OP, your question is a little too complex for me. All I can say is I shoot strangers most of the time without talking to them. Sometimes I tried to pay people to pose for me and give me a short interview for 5 or 10 minutes, such as in this project.

nsfw

http://dewallenrld.tumblr.com/

In this case it didn't work. The few that agreed took the $ and cheated me when it came time for the photos / interview. One took the $ and told me to get out or she will call the police and tell them I attacked her.

I love photographing people, but I am not much for schmoozing. So that sums me up best.
 
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