There’s so much talk of “stolen” moments, of candid photography, almost as if it were real; so many people are fearful of being in an empty space, on a photography set, in front of me. So many people see posing as pretence.
I make no distinction. For me photography is always a creative act; it isn’t “you”, it’s an image of you, and we could spend hours debating about how real or unreal it is. Yet it is always something that didn’t exist before. Whether you’re posing or not, something new comes out of it: the photographs that I’m delighted to entrust to you for the future.
Whether you’re more comfortable not looking at the camera, or if you decide to focus your gaze straight at me, whether you’re aware that someone is taking your photograph or if you feel more authentic if your photo is taken while you’re unawares, it makes little difference to me. It’s about adapting my technique, conscious of the different results only in formal terms.
These two photographs are a great example of a posed studio photo shoot.
How big is the set in a studio? Small. Even though the LuisaLab studio is spacious, the centre of the set is just 2 or 3 square metres. Room for you, a light (sometimes one light really is enough), and me.
This was the set for Laura and Davide who, after choosing me as their wedding photographer, then opted for a studio photo shoot to get portraits documenting a very special time for them: as parents-to-be. Then in the same space, with the same outfits, I took photos with their newborn Alessandro.
The power of a posed photograph to tell a story is here, before your very eyes.
