So here we are, four weeks into the semester and this is my first post. Max Gerber is the instructor for the portrait class. He is a self taught photographer (he admits to taking one photography course) who is able to create dramatic and intriguing images. You can find examples of his work at Max S Gerber.
Our first assignment was Friends and Strangers: The objective was to photograph three people you know and three stranger, with their explicit consent - none of that - sneaking a photo with a long lens while someone waits in the bank line or is playing with their kid at the park. It's not that tough to get people who will help you create a photograph - but pulling out that Model Release - and asking people to sign on the dotted line is a horse of another color. Some people are really worried about giving a photographer permission to take their photograph. Not sure what they think will happen - but they are not about to sign a piece of paper giving you ownership of their image.
Here are the strangers that agreed to help me.
It is interesting to note that the photographs where people are looking into the camera and smiling are not nearly as engaging as those images where people seem to show a bit of their personality. The dichotomy is that people often want those very generic, vanilla ice cream photos. Max - our instructor, says his clients are never the people he photographs - he works for people who commission the photographs, that way he is not required to create something the subject "loves." I'm not too sure that works for the rest of us - who would hire us if all we captured were images that people hid behind the couch?
