Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation.— Graham Greene
Continued from “The Next Chapter”…In which I wrote a meditation, I think so anyway, about writing. All of which got me, later, thinking about my own writing these days.
I haven’t written any books in a long time and if you want to know why, you might want to read this post. I‘m not writing any books but am reading lots of them and am writing a lot of blog posts.
For this blog alone, for instance, I write 365 different posts a year. For my car photography blog I’m currently on track to write 156 posts in 2022. I also write another 156 posts for my boutique boudoir photography site. (If you would like to get a link for that site I am currently only giving it to models and aspiring models. If that’s you, ask…) Add it all up and that a lot of words to write each year, which explains why at the end of some days I’m kind of tired.
But writing has been a part of who I am for a long time. As I mentioned in the last Joe’s Book Club, my main motivation in writing magazine articles, books and blog posts like this one is to help photographers improve the craft and sometimes aesthetics of their work but especially to encourage people to have fun with their photography. That’s always been the unofficial motto of this blog. Part of the fun for me is not only making the images you see here and on Instagram (@joefarace) but also sharing how I made these images for the readers of this and my car photography blog.
Book of the Week: How to Photograph People by Demetrius Fordham
I finally got around to writing a review about a photography book and this will be first of what I expect others to follow but I expect to make any future Books of the Week to reflect what I’m reading at the moment.
How to Photograph People is a look into the mind and methodology of a talented photographer. As an editorial and commercial photography, Fordham’s work straddles many genres ranging from photojournalism to studio work but what it has in common is that it is insightful, dynamic and creative demonstrating that there is more than one way to make portraits.
If you want to know how he does all this, he tells you how in chapters that are much more technique-oriented than gear-oriented. In sections that are scattered throughout each chapter you’ll find sidebars called “How I Shot It” and while sometimes he may mention the camera or maybe the lens used to make the image maybe he won’t either. Instead you may hear him preferring to focus on what was in his head when he was creating a specific image. This is something that’s rare these days with many photo experts preferring to keep such “secrets” to themselves.
Fordham doesn’t do that. Instead, he shares his photographic and thought processes with the reader along with some well-reproduced images that abound in a well designed book; something I thought many photo book publishers had given up on. It could well be that the designer was inspired by working with Fordham’s images too. The result is a must-read book about making portraits that comes out of the blue in directions that could be called anything but predictable and should serve as a springboard for inspiration and ideas for your own photography.
PS: Just a reminder: Podcast #3 is live now on my YouTube channel, Joe Farace’s Videos, featuring a look at the Leica Z2X and my experiences shooting 22-year old Agfa color film in a 40-year old Canon SLR, plus some information on where I get my ideas for blog posts!
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