Chasing Expression

In everyday life, I am a construction worker. But in my heart, on a construction site or elsewhere… I am a photographer. I no longer count the hours absorbed by my (burning!) passion. Besides, my job having become second nature, I still have my head for portrait photography. What am I looking for? The lyricism.

What is lyricism? It is the passionate expression of a state of being, it is the intensity of the gaze, it is the contraction of a body which exists, which thinks, which is in relation to life. Portrait photography, in my conscience, is all about that, about life. It is the expression, the shaping of the immaterial. For a long time, I thought I was a soul hunter. No, I'm more of an expression hunter.

The photographic project, whatever it is, begins long before I have a camera in my hands. Randomly, it takes shape by reflecting on the world around me. The music and the poetry of the songs I listen to while doing my daily duty, the ambient sounds and the silent reflections that pass by turn into images. The images are indefinite, at first, but they gradually adopt forms, tones, colors, living postures. A clearer meaning eventually emerges. The intention, the possible artistic work materializes and ultimately seeks a personality. All that is missing is one element: a human being, a face, a body.

"You will see, when the pose is right, when you understand the drive that inhabits you, you will feel the magnetism, you will feel the lens pulling on the mask of your face" ... I say this regularly to the models with whom I collaborate. “Think about your face as a flat surface and your nose as a needle. At the end of the needle, a string is attached to the lens. It is you who controls the emotion, it is you who pulls one way or the other, up or down. In this way, you convey the emotion to the audience, to the person looking at the photo. It can be pride or arrogance by pulling up, melancholy or even shyness by leaving a loss. You have to make me disappear and speak only to the audience. They will be alone with the image, they will be alone with what you have to express. The person, whoever it is, must feel attraction or repulsion, a positive or negative flow. They must live and feel the “lyrical flow”, the story that you have to offer to them. Their interest in the image, it is there essentially. »

In my opinion, that is what the expression is about. This is my conception of what portrait photography is. The expression is a message. It is an intangible object that passes from one consciousness to another. The photographer is the vector; the photographer is the transmission channel. When magic happens, you no longer feel its presence. No matter what type of camera he or she uses, no matter how technically knowledgeable he or she is, if he or she manages to vaporize and let the emotion flow directly from the model to the visual audience… the photo is successful. It becomes like a proxy selfie.

Very accustomed to taking selfies, people are, however, not very comfortable posing when it is no longer possible to see themselves in a mirror or on the screen of an electronic device. Some subjects have good control of their body and their expression, but they are few.

In the studio, I use software that not only gives the advantage of seeing the photos arrive one after the other on the screen (tethered shooting) but also allows the models to see themselves in real time, as if they had their personal device at their disposal to control their physiognomy, the position of facial and bodily features in the elaboration of an expressive meaning. The kinesthetic sense is not innate for everyone; most young models who want to get into modelling must develop it. My approach, the one that has taken shape over time and experience, probably helps (I hope!!!) to speed up the process for those with whom I collaborate.

Among all the expressive forms, one must avoid those which betray doubt; expressing doubt in image, in the context of a portrait photography session, is equivalent to diverting all attention to the photographer, which I try to avoid absolutely. With models with less experience, I prefer to chat during the session and take advantage of their reaction to the conversation to trigger the camera shutter at "decisive moments" rather than seeing them resort to executing commands and bearing a great part of discomfort and inconsistency in the construction of the interplay of emotions and of the message which will be the center of interest of the image.

Obviously, as a model, you must learn to control many elements simultaneously (not only the face but also the trunk, the axis of the neck and the head, the legs and the arms, the hands) and I always do my best to help the person achieve a pose that is not only believable but, above all, interesting.

“If you have pain in your little toe, it will show in your hair even if the photo only shows your face… we won’t believe it”; I repeat this sentence ad nauseam. But it's true. We must always be aware that the goal is to create a "lyrical flow", to make the observer fall under the attractions of a successful expression, to thwart the desire to "zap" towards the next image on the various popular platforms. In addition to the model’s expressive elements, the color harmony, the palette of tones and their well-spread gradients give rise to an appreciable fluidity of the pictographic or figurative elements, which act as additional attention grabbers.

In developing the project, upstream, I think a lot about the shot, the composition of the image, the choice of optical equipment (focal length, aperture and depth of field, shutter speed and appropriate sensitivity of the digital sensor or silver film), the choice of lighting equipment (natural light, flash or strobe, light modifiers allowing the creation of a "soft" or "hard" light and the whole register tones and contrasts, etc.). All the technical aspects planned before the session become extraordinary instruments, magical tools.

In the context of a given ambient light, no one other than the photographer can imagine the outcome of a shot. The reaction of models and other stakeholders is often as spectacular as the result itself. When I use silver film (which I develop myself once at home), I keep the surprise to myself. In film photography, the task of achieving a captivating image is daunting; every conceivable obstacle stands in front of me… and you see absolutely nothing before the development! As a result, the final image is as impressive as it is satisfying. Analog photography, film... I’m crazy about it! The light measurement and exposure calculations, the safe (and environmentally friendly!) handling of fragile rolls of film and all the chemicals involved, the decisions to be made and the balance to be maintained between exposure and development, the proportions of the different solutions to be integrated into the tank baths and all the complexity of the execution… I love it! It allows me, for a few hours, to become a druid, a wizard or, even better, a mad scientist!

Finally, models, women and men, young and old, are willing to be photographed. There are a lot of them. Social media is overflowing with people craving to be the center of attention for a while, to be in front of a camera. It was there, on all these platforms, that I met many of them. A real network of collaboration exists for portrait photography and all its derivatives. The opportunities abound. On the other hand, time… we never have enough!

Lots of projects, lots of proposals, lots of photos to edit (when working in RAW format, editing is unavoidable); patience becomes a necessary tool. The benefit of taking the time often becomes the promise of an original and better planned photographic concept, of one or better finished images.

As a photographer, having a busy schedule and too tight deadlines end up killing the creative momentum, reducing the raw and promising vigor of a rich and abundant inspiration. Portrait photography is not, as far as I am concerned, a hot dog factory; it is an art workshop. It is a meeting point where sensitive people get to know each other, get to trust each other and where they meet to create artworks that could not take shape otherwise. Portrait photography is about glorifying the human being and highlighting his dignity. It is a matter of beauty in all its forms, it is an act of respect.

At the end of the day, if a picture is worth a thousand words, an expression is worth a million; the words you want, those that do you good, those that warm your heart.