Canal bargeman, Bruges, Belgium.
For a number of years I worked as a photojournalist and producer, creating magazine features and audio-visual programs to help religious and humanitarian agencies communicate their missions. I was always looking for opportunities to make portraits. Strong photographs of people added power to the message I wanted to communicate, because people are interested in people. That's why we call it "human interest." When someone from another culture is portrayed in all of his or her humanity, dignity, and individuality, both the subject and those who view the photograph are served. As the great Edward Steichen, creator of the landmark "Family of Man" exhibit said, "The function of photography is to explain man to man."
Photography bypasses the logical centers of the brain and communicates directly to the heart. When the subject is someone from another culture, an incisive portrait can arouse in the viewer a deep awareness that this also is a person, a member of my species. Different from me, yes, but part of my family. More than 50 years have passed, but I still remember the first time a photograph connected with me in this way. It was an Emil Schultheiss portrait of an African girl in the old Modern Photography magazine. Her face plastered with ceremonial paint, she peeked at the camera from the corners of her eyes. I looked into her soul and was hooked for good.
(The above paragraphs were adapted from my article Foreign Faces, which appeared in the August, 1999 issue of Rangefinder Magazine.)
Putting it all more simply, I still love to make casual portraits of people wherever I find them. Here are a few.
Old man with a hat.
I found this gentleman hanging out on the courthouse lawn in Dayton, Tennessee and asked him if I could make his picture.
A very southern-looking couple eating barbeque at the Strut in Chattanooga's historically black 9th Street neighborhood, part of the Riverbend Festival. She looked at me and said "Don't take our picture!" But she wasn't being serious. So I did.
Young soccer player, Nigeria.
About the equipment: All the photos were made with Olympus OM film cameras and various Olympus Zuiko lenses, except for the gentleman with the hat, whose portrait was made with a Canon EOS A2 film camera and the Canon EF 28-105mm lens. Fujichrome 100 film was used for all photos.
Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia
are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal
address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943
Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how
you would like your book inscribed.
If you would like to have a print of one of my photographs, check out my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/ If you don't find what you want there, let me know and I'll arrange to include it in the gallery.
Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.
I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.
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