People

I have always had trouble shooting people, I prefer not moving object with a good composition. But it´s really the people photos you remember. They can trigger memories, sadness, happiness, give you a new view on what is happening far away from you and much more. This post is supposed to compare the two photographers Annie Leibovitz and James Nachtwey that both have a very separated styles of capturing the world and what goes on in it.

Annie Leibovitz has a direct approach and is in a big way taking part in the actions she herself is portraying. When James Nachtwey on the other hand is standing calmly on the outside trying to capture the sadness and roughness of war. But with both photographers I get the feeling of crossing the line of peoples barriers. It sometimes gets to close and personal for what is considered ok, but since they are accepted by the people around them they can be there and take those up close photos that really catch your heart.

I tried the early Annie Leibovitz method on one of my friends, "trying to take a lot of photographs until you they kind of forget that the camera is there". I only did this for one day with her, so I could not really see any difference in her behavior or in the photographs that came out of it. But when I instead take photographs of my fiance, he dose not even look at the camera or change his body language when I take his picture. I would assume that this is because I have taken photographs off him in the past to the extent that he is perfectly at ease with the camera. Is it then a benefit to be able to catch people in their actions without them being affected by the fact that a camera is present? I do not really know, I think it depends on what you want to catch in your photographs. Do you want the image that someone puts up for you to put on print or do you want to catch the naked truth? The answer might surprise you.