Project 15: Tools of the Trade

During the 1920’s & 30’s, August Sander, a German photographer took a series of portraits of people from all levels of society. This is now seen as an important social document of pre-World War II German society.

In the 1950’s, Irving Penn undertook a shorter project called his Small Trades series of portraits. This project spanned Paris, London and New York, covering people in their working clothes and, where relevant, with some of the tools of their trade against a plain backdrop. This very formal style isolates the subject from their environment concentrating all attention upon the individual and their clothes.

This project required me to take a series of portraits with the title ‘Tools of the Trade’. My initial aim is to produce an up-to-date version of the Sander and Penn projects where I produce a set of individual portraits of people with the tools of their trade and dressed for work. I aim to have them looking directly at the camera. Unlike these projects however, I will place my subjects within their working environment. 

The images need to be viewed as a consistent series of images. To this end, I intend to use similar focal lengths (27mm) and blend ambient and flash as I have done in the picture Vicar Jim. My reason for this is that I want to explore and practise lighting possibilities with Nikon Speedlights. Taking inspiration from the Strobist website, one of my main aims in the coming year is to work on my control of ambient and artificial light, blending the two in environmental portraiture. For this reason, this project is particularly interesting to me. In addition to lighting, I intend to place the subject to the left of centre in the frame. Capturing expressions and the way people stand is of great interest here. Richard Avedon’s Portraits of Power capture a shade of personality in a very natural way despite their plain studio backgrounds. The way subjects respond to me is another huge area I would like to explore.

Vicar Jim
Taken in the vestry of St. Mark's Church, Salisbury, the ambient light in this pictures is very pleasing. I lit the picture with two speedlights facing away from the subject, bounced off walls behind the camera on the right and left. In order to work with the ambient light coming from a window to camera right, I used the light there as my key light and the left hand one as fill. Blending the lights with the great ambient light that churches seem to have, created a softness that brought out the contours of the wood and books in the background giving this portrait a feel of the place. I also liked the soft light delineating the folds in his cassock. Jim is holding the bible. If ever there was a tool of the trade; this is it.

Future Ideas

Dennis - Police Museum

Barman - Sandbar

Ice Cream Van factory - Crewe