8 Comments

1. Anonymous
   Posted July 9, 2005 at 12:12 am | Permalink

   woggg!!!

2. Tore
   Posted July 9, 2005 at 1:32 pm | Permalink

   Very nice stuff!
   I hope someone (hint hint) will eventually write some sort of tutorial, covering subjects like how one builds up the courage to shoot strangers, and what one says in one’s defense if they notice. Other useful subjects would be some notes on self-defense, law and the names of a few dentists that do good work on loose front teeth.

   In any case… I like these a lot!

3. Brian
   Posted July 9, 2005 at 3:31 pm | Permalink

   Tore, I love yer stuff on your site also. Keep it up! I wish I had the patience to experiement like you do!
   As for photographing candidly, I have developed a few techniques that makes things easier but the biggest ingredient is being plain bold. I use a waist level view finder, not putting the camera to ones face makes all the difference, you can point the camera 90 degrees or more from where you are facing. Also just sitting somewhere with the camera on your lap waiting for something interesting to happen is much easier with a waist level. I also never use a flash. This takes lots of time. And generally I shoot at 1/30 or slower. Use anything you can to set the camera on, be it a bench, display, or a camera bag. In some cases I’ve sued a tripod and it generally makes no difference.
   Most of all common sense, don’t be agressive, if people ask explain as much as you feel comfortable but the real reason is to make pictures. Not many understand this in explanation but do in images.

4. Tore
   Posted July 9, 2005 at 5:16 pm | Permalink

   Sounds like good advice. Thank you!

   I think that different people’s different approaches to everyday work-difficulties like these really reflect their different personalities. Some are bold, some are not. (It’s probably healthier to strive to become better at being oneself than to try to be like others). For example… I’m mostly too much of a coward to face people and take thir picture in fear of… who knows what. So I end up with a lot of photos of people who have their back turned to the camera. Which I’m sure really reflect who I am and how I fit into this world. The same principle is probably at work to some degree in all of us. We may not have a concious intellectual idea of shooting this and that to express our own thoughts and feelings, but it somehow shines through anyway. So in a way a lot of what we do unconciously become self-portraits.

   Would still be interesting to learn more about many photographer’s trade secrets. Little techniques they have, why they choose this and that type of film for certain occasions. That sort of thing. Anything really.

5. Brian
   Posted July 10, 2005 at 9:09 am | Permalink

   Tore, You’re really onto to something here! I think with some of the best photographer’s we can see self portraits in all their work, whether it be landscape, constructed scenarios, etc… Which makes it interesting to understand a bit about the psychology of the artist. Why they make certain choices etc….
   For a good audio example of an artist explaining some of these points, here’s a link to Alec Soth recently speaking on Minnesota Public Radio

6. Tore
   Posted July 12, 2005 at 5:25 am | Permalink

   Very interesting link. Thank you!

7. Martin Fuchs
   Posted August 1, 2005 at 8:42 pm | Permalink

   i think i didn’t tell you yet but i realy like your way of taking images. your style of photographing people in their environment…
   keep up the great work. curious to see more of your projects.
   greetings,
   martin

8. Brian
   Posted August 2, 2005 at 8:42 am | Permalink

   Thanks Martin. I put up a link to your blog, which is really quite good!