If you already know you’d like to work with me – just message me or drop me a line on Instagram and we’ll take it from there – but, if you want to know more…
When I tell someone I’m a portrait photographer many assume that’s just operating a camera and optimising light. While I make the images, and edit them afterwards, my technical ability is just a part of my approach.
I seek to capture more than a likeness. I want others to see that person as they are, using nothing but their body. Just them or the persona they inhabited that day – sometimes the one that surfaces once we’re together.
For that to happen, they need to be in a space where it’s safe to be truthful. Free, unguarded, intimate, confident. I want them as comfortable and relaxed as with a trusted partner, because that’s what I want a viewer to sense from them. Present, at ease, not performing – all self-doubt put to one side.
In the room I lead without imposing. For this to work well I need to be someone who can be trusted, a guiding hand, a source of calm, someone to be themself with. I carry the outcome, so the person being portrayed doesn’t have to. Beyond that they can project onto me as they desire. For some people I might represent authority, others a lover figure, paternal, or an admirer. Everyone needs something different.
Memory helps. I suggest people bring a few with them: a calm time, a happy time, a memory of touch and someone or something they strongly care for. We cycle through them together, and they become present rather than posing.
There’s playfulness in it, a temporary togetherness: two people sharing a space that, in the moment, is very personal to them. While it’s happening, it’s just us two and the world doesn’t exist. I rarely think about myself, but it does feel empowering, intimate, rewarding, often quite charged – many times with sensual or sexual energies exuded.
And yet I’m not there for me. I’m the stand-in for the audience. Everything about how I behave is so that later, when the image is out in the world, someone can believe they could press play and be there in the space. They can sense the energy – be tempted to touch, ask a question or share something intimate – they can be there – immersed.
How the viewer engages comes from them. They bring their own experiences of the world, their own hat to wear. Nothing’s locked in. I give them the opportunity to be there.
Through the edited images I provide a space the viewer can step into.
If you’re curious what it feels like to be seen as you are through my eyes – message me or drop me a line on Instagram.
Johann
Also I often get ask these questions:
- What do you charge? Nothing; the idea is this is of mutual benefit and low stakes for us both.
- Am I good enough / I’m not as good as the folks you shoot! You are great as you are – we’ll show you at your best. Message me and we’ll discuss.
- What happens if I don’t like one or more of the images? I delete them – life’s too short to upset you.
- Where does this happen? At my home in Leeds, with a guide sent beforehand on what happens and how to prepare.
