I find that making portraits of people that I know really enjoyable, especially if I am able to make a ‘creative portrait’.
The initial idea for this series was hatched in 2011 with this image that was made of my daughter Janet. We were actually drawing each other at the time (I think that perhaps this is the drawing that she made of me) I asked Janet to hold her drawing up so I could to make a photograph of it. When she peaked around the corner of the page I made this shot I love her beautiful eye. I then went on and made a drawing of my son James and made a photograph of him doing the same thing. We were holidaying in a caravan at Wombeyan Caves. NSW. Australia.
This idea has become a series that I call them ‘Draw Portraits’.
A big part of the experience is the slowing down of time. Making a drawing of someones likeness is much slower task than that the click of a shutter. In this in time that the sitter and I really get to ‘see’ one another, and spend time ‘being’ in the same space. I am asking the sitter to keep their eyes on me, not a lens. It takes concentration and awareness.
At the same time people seem to be less defensive about being photographed and enjoy being part of a creative ‘art’ idea. They seem to enjoy becoming an artwork. Usually by the end of the session my subject is at ease and I take the opportunity to also make a more traditional portrait.
So I get portraits of friends and family that I otherwise may not have had permission to make.
Janet is an artist with her own website check out Wandering Earth