Finding Meaning in Portrait Photography

Plus something I learned.

Nowhereman
Counter Arts
4 min readOct 4, 2022

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It all started this summer when I came across this post on a certain forum.

“Photographer wanted for Sailor suit themed photoshoot. Please contact me at XXX if interested”

Or something along the line.

I quickly shot her a message, and a week or two later, I got myself a portrait shoot.

Since my friend was also interested in shooting portraits, he joined us on that hot (30 degrees +) summer afternoon.

The shoot went great; the model was very energetic and open to any posing ideas. She even came up with her own poses, which was a big help since I am not very good at directing people.

After that portrait photoshoot, my friend and I contacted different people on social media and have since gone on four shoots over one and a half months. That was about one shoot every 1.5 weekends!

Finding meaning in portrait shoots

Each time I got my photos back I was mostly satisfied. The photos are aesthetically pleasing to me, and the model seems to be pleased as well. But being me, I started to think more about the whole portrait photo shoot thing.

I started to feel what I was doing was collecting images of pretty women, akin to collecting stamps? What I mean is, they don’t seem to mean a lot to me. I realised that they are not the kind of photos that I ultimately want to create.

Do I hate portrait shoots now?

No, I don’t.

Am I going to do another portrait soon if given the chance?

Yes, I probably would.

HOWEVER

For the next portrait shoot, it has to be a shoot that has a more concrete concept. I guess something that conveys stronger feelings towards the viewer, other than something that just looks good.

Another thing I want to try is to get to know my future subjects better, before and during the shoot. I could spend more time with them and try to break into their shells and see them for who they are instead of the beautiful outer shells.

Hmm…. So many thoughts…

There is something I have learned, though…

Stemming from my lack of experience, I decided to make up by being more prepared before each shoot. I scoured for ideas on Instagram, photobooks I have read, and YouTube videos just to see how others do it. Then, putting the inspiration photographs on a moodboard enabled me to quickly refer to them when I felt lost and needed some posing inspiration.

It also acts as a place for different people to brainstorm ideas. My friend and I would share the moodboard with the models before the shoot to communicate with us which ideas they liked or disliked, and discuss clothing and styling options.

I definitely still have much to learn, and I am starting to like shooting with different people. It is different from the photographs I used to make, but at the same time, it just feels good to learn something new.

PS: As you may or may not notice, this is different from what I used to write here. It’s something that is a little bit more casual, something like journal entries during my journey in photography.

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(Read more photobook musings here)

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