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500 wordstotheemailaddressonpage3 andwina year’sdigitalsubscriptiontoAP.I
s long-exposure portraiture a
distinctive and valuable technique
for drawing out character, or
merely a technical necessity when
using certain sorts of camera, and one
that actually adversely in uences the
look of your subject? I’m talking about
shots when the subject is required to
hold a stationary pose for seconds, or
in extreme cases minutes, not when
a long exposure is aimed at capturing
movement such as light trails or still
and motion combinations as with
rear-curtain sync ash.
I was pondering the matter recently
while testing a Polaroid OneStep Plus,
which allows you to choose long
exposures via an app. Turning off the
ash to take advantage of a dark and
moody environment while shooting
a portrait, the camera’s meter indicated
an exposure time of 15 seconds.
Unfortunately, my subject found it
dif cult to remain still for this long – and
the result was a rather smudgy, albeit
atmospheric mess. But even if they’d
managed to keep still, I wasn’t enjoying
the somewhat strained and pained
expression they adopted while trying.Revealing character
Some esteemed photographers,
however, achieve great success using
long exposures in their portraiture.
Rineke Dijkstra, for example, appears to
revel in the two-minute exposures she
often needs when taking portraits with
her 5x4in lm camera. The sober
expressions on her subjects’ faces are
widely praised for their character-revealing
insights and their transparency. But could
another interpretation be that everyone
looks so intriguingly solemn simply
because they’re having to be unnaturally
still, their faces revealing nothing but
their trepidation and discomfort?
August Sander, the famous German
photographer, is a more historicTHE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS COLUMN ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER MAGAZINE OR KELSE Y MEDIA LIMITED
A long-exposure portrait of guitarist PerryDo long-exposure portraits have an enigmatic
quality, or are the subjects merely ill at ease?Viewpoint
Jon Bentley
example. His collection of portraits, Face
of our Time, was published in 1929.
Often praised for their profound
seriousness and challenging matter-of-
factness, I wonder if they’re actually
a record of paralytic unease en masse
at having to pose for long exposures.
I decided to do an experiment. During
a TV shoot the other week, I found an
obliging subject in the shape of splendid
guitarist Peredur ap Gwynedd, aka Perry,
from the band Pendulum. Not having a
plate camera to hand, I had placed an
ND lter on the front of my Lumix G
and tried exposures from 1/20sec
to 10 seconds. I found anything longer
than about half a second and Perry
simply couldn’t stay still long enough
when holding his guitar. And even then
I felt I was getting a rather sterner
expression than if I’d been looking for
something transient that could be
captured in an instant.
Until I’ve carried out a few more
tests, I can’t be sure, but I think I’ll
only be using long exposure times when
I actually want my portrait subjects to
lookill-at-easeandworried.Mary Ellen Mark: The Book
of Everything
Edited by Martin Bell
€480, 880 pages, Steidl, hardback,
ISBN: 9783958295650
You’ll need to be a serious collector
to splash out on a book such as this
one, but for those with the budget, it’s
an enormous tome that will likely be
highly prized.
Conceived and edited by lm director
Martin Bell, the late Mary Ellen Mark’s husband and
collaborator for 30 years, The Book of Everything
includes over 600 images and diverse texts from
Mark’s extraordinary life, work and vision.
Spanning 1963 to her death in 2015, Mark’s
work told brilliant, intimate and provocative stories
of the characters whom she met and engaged with.
Find out more about Mark’s fascinating story in AP
13 Feb 2021, when we’ll be publishing an interview
with Martin Bell.Taylor Wessing Photographic
Portrait Prize 2020
Online Exhibition, free, npg.org.uk,
until 31 March 2021
Featuring 54 portraits from 37 different artists, an
online exhibition of the annual Taylor Wessing Portrait
Prize gives you the opportunity to ‘virtually’ explore
the show. Grab a cup of your favourite drink, sit down
and explore the images at your own pace – without
anybody spoiling your view.
Normally taking place at The National Portrait
Gallery, the venue is currently closed for
refurbishment. While it’s not quite as enjoyable as
a visit to a real gallery, with travel restrictions and
Covid-anxiety in place, it gives the imagery a wider
audience than it might otherwise have enjoyed.
This year, all of the prize-winning photographers
happen to be women, with the top prize going to Alys
Tomlinson for her project Lost Summer. The panel of
judges included Edward Enninful, editor-in-chief of
British Vogue, photographer Mark Neville and Penny
Martin, Editor-in-Chief of The Gentlewoman.Out now
The best books and exhibitions from
the world of photographyJon Bentley is a TV producer and presenter best
known for Top Gear and Channel 5’s The Gadget Show