subscribe 0330 333 1113 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I 17 August 2019 31
Harry Borden
Harry Borden is
one of the UK’s
finest portrait
photographers.
He has won prizes
at the World Press
Photo awards
(1997 and 1999)
and in 2014 he was awarded an
Honorary Fellowship by the Royal
Photographic Society. The National
Portrait Gallery collection holds over
100 of his images. His book, Sur v i vor:
A Portrait of the Survivors of the
Holocaust, was published in 2017.
Visit http://www.harryborden.co.uk.After the main shots,
Harry decided to try
something different
and took the women
to a nearby fieldspent quite a long time getting
ready for the main shots. While
they were doing that, I did
individual portraits of them all.
As regular readers will know,
I prefer to use available light
when possible. It was a cold,
foggy January day and for
these portraits I found a space
beside a big full-length window
and shot them all in the same
area. One of them, Erin Borini
(wife of AC Milan striker Fabio
Borini) was a model. When
you’re photographing models,
it takes quite a while before you
can get them to be themselves,
because they’re so used to
supplying photographers
with what they think the
photographer wants.
I used the 50MP medium-
format mirrorless Fujifilm
GFX 50R. It’s my go-to camera
these days; I love using it. For
most of the portraits and group
shots I used the Fujinon 63mm
f/2.8, which is equivalent to a
50mm on a standard DSLR,
but I also shot on the 45mm
f/2.8. Both are great lenses.
The Guardian wanted me
to take a group shot against
a Colorama backdrop. I set
it up in an area where there
was some good daylight and
supplemented it with some of
the continuous ring lights that
the women use to take their
selfies. Then I photographed
them by the side of the pool,
which I thought was nice as it
alluded to the type of house
they all lived in.
Finally, I decided to do
something completely differentand asked them to go out of
the house and garden, beside
a nearby field. I remember
seeing the women’s high heels
sinking down into the wet
mud as we walked. I asked
them to hold hands and stand
in a gap in the hedge, against
the blank background of the
fog-filled field. The Guardian
Weekend didn’t use the shot
and this is the first time it’s
been published.
For me, this was the most
interesting picture of the day
that I took. Isolated against
the fog and standing together
on a cold, bleak day, it captured
the women’s camaraderie and
showed the bond that had
developed from their unusual
shared experiences.
As told to David Clark