A while ago I posted about my struggle with portraiture and how important I think it is for me to connect with the subject on an emotional level. While that might not be true for everyone, it’s still something that I struggle with. Through trial and error, I’ve learned to deal with my anxiety in different ways. One way that works for me is using an instant film camera to make the initial interaction less awkward and more friendly.
This often comes into play when traveling around places where the population doesn’t necessarily have the means to go out and get prints themselves.
While I was over in Niger this last year, documenting a project on paleontology, we ran into quite a few semi-nomadic families moving around the desert herding various types of animals. We would stop and chat through an interpreter to see if they’d seen any massive dinosaur bones when traveling. During these stops, I’d pull out the instant film camera and through a small amount of miming, convince them to pose for a portrait, that I would then give to them.
I realize that I’m not solving any large-scale social problems, and maybe I’m really just doing all of this for myself, but It does seem like it makes people genuinely happy to receive a small gift like that and if it’s an easy thing to do, why not do it?
