Well, a lot of interesting posts here. I've just read this earlier one again so I'll start here.
Guess it all depends on what you're shooting. I shoot a lot of people, so I need to be social and outgoing, otherwise people might not relax in front of the camera or be so welcoming in allowing you to shoot in a given situation. This is not to say that you need to be aggressive (though that may be necessary sometimes), but it's all in creating a rapport with your subjects -- shyness may hinder your ability to do that.
A plate of food, however, doesn't care if you're shy....
I once knew someone who didn't like eating in public!
It's true with most things you do that if people pick up on the fact you're shy or uncomfortable, this can transmit to those around you. Not conducive to observational photography! Somehow, with shy people, having their camera with them, often doesn't let this happen.
Question for 'shy' people: what is it about having your camera with you that makes you feel, more confidant(?), more sociable(?), more able(?), leading to more contentment with yourself and respect from others and less shy(?).
My point is that some types of photography don't require the photographer to interact with other people. If you're shy, and want to do photography, I think you'd be more drawn to one of those types than you would be to one of the types that require intense personal interaction and a high level of social skills.
That really is the whole point. With a camera, some shy people seem to feel a need and want to intereact with people. That's the quandary that I'm trying to unravel and wonder what and why this is. Realising that they can, this becomes an incentive taking them into areas of activity and satisfaction with their photography, which is obviously beneficial to them, and therefore self-perpetuating
People are hard to characterize really. I've just been looking at the new book of Jane Bown's wonderful portraits. ("Exposures") Apparently she did not finish her course as she could not agree to participate in group discussion - pretty shy. Her quite nature belied her force and persistence, however. 'Photographer without ego' the introduction said. Not likely. She waited for the right moment and grabbed the right shot. She could badger and cajole if necessary. Shyness is both a condition and a way of being. Learning the advantages of shyness makes for a reluctance to shed its outward signs. Perhaps the sensitivity that makes for egotistical introspection is ideal for discerning the character of others and capturing it, like an actor. I no longer know what shyness is.......
Jane Bown's portraits are wonderful, and naturally so. It depends what you mean by 'Photographer with an ego...not likely'. But being able to direct people and to know what you want from a shoot -indeed, have to get from a shoot if you are working to a deadline- is nothing to do with having an ego, it's just being professional. I don't think she has an ego.
Are you then going on to say that because she appeared to be 'shy', this helped her, in some way, to get her type of portrait; and also to direct her sitters? This is an interesting area. Maybe people feel sympathetic to apparent shyness, and this might be taken advantage of by the 'shy' photographer? I wonder: might the photographer do this consciously or not; and do the photographed submit to being directed more easily; i.e. are they more submissive and direct-able because of this; because they think it might make things easier for this 'shy' person?
...sensitivity that makes for egotistical introspection...? I can see that having an introspective nature might encourage you to gather information. This might initiate an interest in observing others instead of/as well as, yourself. Also making comparisons with yourself and others would, I'm sure, ultimately beneif you with people photography. Compare and contrasts are always valuable explorations, as every good school knows. But again I cannot see the connection with ego, i.e. self-importance etc. Perhaps you are referring to the psychoanalysis interpretation: id, ego superego?
Though I've never met Jane Bown, about 15 years ago I did once receive a nice post-card from her enclosing a payment cheque from The Guardian to me which had erroneously gone to her! It was the portrait of Samual Beckett and on the reverse she had written something like, '...it's nice when when they keep coming in isn't it?' !
What an interesting subject...
I agree with the original poster: there's a relation between the passive act of being a photographer and what people consider a shy behaviour.
Why is photography a passive act?
No matter how active we feel or act as photographers, it's clear that in general we are paying attention to what happens to others, so the dinamic facts around a photographer and a shot are usually not affecting us directly. We do lots of things, yes, and are phisically and emotionally very active as shooters, but just to record what happens to others, or outside ourselves...
I admit that since I was a child my parents and relatives were worried because I could spend almost all my time without contact with anyone, and I have been considered all my life a shy person by strangers. Some other times I've been told I'm crazy or unpredictable, even though in general my life's been normal if I think of childhood, school, parties, family, love, marriage, children, divorce... But it's always surprised me how easily people use the word shy on me.
No one knowing me a bit thinks I am shy anymore, but most people did once. They tell me very often I'm a person who is not easy to “catalog” correctly from the beginning. So lately I've been thinking maybe if so many people think I'm shy, well, that must be what I am, no matter how I feel... I ended believing I'm shy because many people think so very often, even though I've lived an intense life that includes lots of things I couldn't talk about here...
I don't like to see myself in video. No problem with photographs. On video I've found I behave too carefully: I don't like discovering that I take things too seriously, and my words and conversation are, to explain it some way, like the character Woody Allen created with himself: a nervous man. But I don't feel like that at all, never, I just feel things must be carefully considered and commented, but when I see and hear myself recorded, I would certainly consider myself shy from outside too! People who get to know me, say I am more like myself after two beers... Totally sober -they say- I look serious, worried and old fashioned in a natural way, although I've tested myself and I learned in my teens I could play any role if I wanted. But lately, what for?
What is clear to me is that when I see and feel other people's emotions, with or without a camera in my hands, for me those emotions are as important as mine, and I feel the same pleasure living through myself or living through another person's emotions...
So yes, at least in my case it's true, I'm a photographer and I am shy.
Thank you. I think it's an interesting subject too.
If you're observing with your camera and not directing what you want to photograph you are a passive observer but you are also responding to what's going on, and therefore what you see is affecting you directly because you are responding to it.
You say that you are a 'shy photographer'. Do you see photography as purely passive then, and this is what's useful to you? Despite the fact that you are quietly involved with responding to what you observe with your camera, do you not really acknowledge this at the time of shooting; at the time of 'being' a photographer? I guess what I am asking is, do you lose your self-awareness, and this is good for your shyness? (as well as good for your photography). But seeing yourself in video reminds you of self-awareness and also self-consciousness, therefore you don't like it?
Do you think that it is the people who have known you for a long time who would consider you shy, while people you have met more recently might not consider you so? You do seem to be a sensitive person which I would consider an asset to you in responding to the world generally. To be able to channell these feelings and emotions to your photography could only be a good thing.
