REFLECTION on Presence & Portraiture
My friend, Debbie asked about my process with portraits after following the images in the LTS blog. This has helped me start to conceptualize the idea that I am drawn to people who communicate what I am calling Presence and so I engage them and then go on to take the photo when I see them ‘present’.
On reflection I think that when I am engaged with their presence they recognize that (actually I get really excited and delighted so its not hard to miss) so they rarely resist. It seems to me that people are more likely to feel uncomfortable when there is a more purely voyeuristic process and I am seeing them as ‘curiosities’ rather than a more honoring engagement.
The more portraits I make the more it is obvious that there are, after all, 6 billion people so collecting ‘heads’ (like stamps) that don’t at least show the person rather than just their curiosity value is essentially boring. I also have learnt to relax more so that if people would prefer I didn’t take a picture I (almost) don’t mind at all.
I guess my work as a therapist has trained me to notice when certain aspects of the person are present however fleetingly, though I think most people have this capacity but may not identify it. Debbie asked about a ‘sort of stripped down intimacy’ and I think it is an intimate process. Maybe psychotherapy and some aspects of photography can share this engagement in what is real and present.
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11am
Presence 29 it turns out there are 29 days in this lunar month (consulting my Australian Government Geoscience Astronomical Information) so here is a bonus picture. When all else fails as a traveller there are other travelers (who I consider fair game) and there is something so stylish about Japanese Women Tourists a lot of times (though not as true of the men). This elegant woman was appropriately at the very refined ”women’s temple” in the Ankor complex in Cambodia. As a bonus she is an ‘umbrella person’ which seems to be a solid category among my images.
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11am
presence 28 older mates Kashgar Sunday Market, China
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9am
presence 27 & 28 Kashgar Livestock Market Slideshow
A bigger version is on my site www.robertvankoesveld.id.au
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12pm
presence 27 young mates Kashgar Sunday Market, China
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11am
presence 26 something put me in mind today of this photograph.
I took it of my dad maybe 40 years ago on a pentax spotmatic. Dad would be 110 if he was alive today and has been dead many years but is paradoxically very present now for me. He was 53 when I was born. He is about to go to church and we were waiting for mum to drive us.
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8am
presence 25 Luang Prabang Laos. This senior monk conveys a beaming warm presence.
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8am
presence 24 swimmer Rottnest Channel Swim 2008 (Click through link is to 2009 swim)
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10am
presence 23 village boy uzbekistan.
Older than his size would indicate, due to the limited diet available in his small village, this boy seems to be developing a formidable manly presence.
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8am
Presence 22 boys at play kashgar
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8am
Presence 21 present to each other. young hmong laos. The ball game allows young hmong to meet with the opposite sex as they throw a ball between each other dressed in their best. The younger children played lightly but the older young men and women had a different quality altogether.
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8am
Presence 20 present to belief uzbekistan
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8am
(lack of) Presence 19 girl in museum. .
it seems I am not only drawn to people who communicate presence but also its shadow. This girl in a museum in italy has a sign which says NO INFORMATION in four languages. Well, thats clear and oddly informative really.
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9am
Presence 18 cuban girl.
In cuba hitching is encouraged. At the side of an underused expressway I found this woman laughing with friends as she waited for a lift.
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8am
Presence 17 Boy Mali. .
as we wove our way through the sand and the clouds of dust from Tombouctou to Essakane in Mali, a small group of trees appeared in the fog of dust. We stopped so the drivers could rest from the race to keep from bogging in the sand of the sahara and a group of boys emerged ‘from nowhere’.
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8am
