Bo Lutoslawski’s Editorial Portrait Photography

This is a workshop in editorial photography. It is about creating images which could be used for publication in a magazine, together with an interview or some other editorial text.

Powerful, editorial portraits attract attention, because of their intensity, because they are photographs of real personalities, because they are not fake, because they are a fleeting moment, which perfectly represents uniqueness of a sitter.

That is what we are going to experiment with for a whole day.

Program:

10:00 am . .... Introduction & assessment of technical requirements, abilities and expectations.
11:30 am . .... Students are split into pairs and will photograph each other for 15-20 min each.
10 minutes assessment, comparing observations and return to taking portraits.
At this stage we are concerned mainly with creating a relation between a photographer and a sitter. Recorded images are to be seen as sketches rather than finished portraits.
Approx 12:30 pm . .... Lunch break (lunch is provided)
Informal talk about all aspects of photography
14:00 pm . .... Introduction to visual aspects of portrait photography, lighting and creative use of exposure.
15:30 pm . .... Photographing each other until 16:30 pm with me cruising from one pair to another.
16:30 until 18:00 . .... Evaluation of what was done

For me the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. In order to “give a meaning” to the world, one has to feel involved in what one frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry. It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression.

To take a photograph is to hold one’s breath when all faculties converge in a face of fleeing reality. It is at that moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.

To take a photograph means to recognize – simultaneously and within a fraction of a second– both the fact itself and the rigorous organisation of visually perceived forms that give it meaning.

It is putting one’s head, one’s eye, and one’s heart on the same axis.