Anybody can pick up a camera and snap off a bunch of photos that will serve as a memento of an occasion. However doing that has a much in common with the work of a photographer as the scribbles of a five-year-old have with the writings of William Shakespeare. For while the digital age has given us unprecedented access to the means to take pictures, it hasn't changed the fact that only a few of us have the ability to see and capture something special in a moment in time.
In his most recent volume of photographs, Mostly People published by Perceval Press, American photographer Robert Whitman, shows that not only does he possess that ability, he also understands the importance of environment in portraiture. Yet his skills as a photographer, as the title of this volume suggests, don't end with his ability to bring people and their surroundings to life; he is equally capable of letting us see meaning in the rust stains of a swimming pool as he is the frown lines of a brow furrowed in concentration.
Ask anyone who has ever attempted to take a picture of a loved one, or who has ever posed for their picture, about the process and you're almost bound to hear a variation of one of two complaints: that doesn't look like them/me, or I/they aren't photogenic. Sure all the bits and pieces that make up the subject are contained within the frame and are all in the right place, but somehow or other nothing that you or they do can make your pictures look like them.
Every holiday season it's the same thing; collections of photos filled with people who look vaguely familiar sitting on the family couch. Taking pictures of people so that we are able to see them is a skill that seems to escape most of us.
Where most of us fail is by attempting to capture an accurate representation of a person in an atmosphere devoid of life or activity. Unless we have trained to work in front of a camera, standing still, or posing, leaves the majority of us incredibly self-conscious and awkward. Without the focus that an environment can give – even if its something as simple as waiting in the lobby of a theatre for a play or movie to begin – the subject of a photograph appears lifeless or artificial. Yet the instant we liberate them from the shackles of posing and photograph them candidly, they miraculously turn into living breathing souls.
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