Damien Mulley

Today I am delighted to introduce Claire Wilson from Gingerpixel. Visit her site and subscribe too!
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When Damien asked me would I do a guest photography post for his blog I at first was at a bit of a loss to find something new that I hadn’t already posted on my own blog. Then I remembered the photos of my Grandfather.

I love to take photographs of people. Nothing is so fascinating and challenging as trying to capture the subtle expressions and details that describe a person. When I approach someone to take their portrait I don’t want to just take a snapshot of them, I want something that catches a little bit more, something unique to them. As soon as people pose for a picture it’s as if they put on their photo face: they go all stiff and grimace at the camera, so a little bit of subterfuge is necessary. For this shot of my Grandfather we were sat around the dinner table after my mother had fed us all and he was in full story flow. It was simple enough to snap away without him even noticing thanks to an 85mm telephoto lens and the fact that my family are so used to me with a camera. A lot of the shots I didn’t put the camera to my eye so it was even less obtrusive.

My Grandfather has always worked with his hands. Although there are no other artists in the family, I think that I get what artistic ability I have from my DaDa. As far back as I can remember he has always been making things; his nails are permanently oil-stained from tinkering with the engines on the trucks he drove all his life. As a child we would sit at the kitchen table in his conservatory (which he built) and he would teach me to draw horses. For this reason I wanted to take photographs of his hands because they are so expressive of who he is and the life he has lived.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 at 12:37 pm and is filed under blogs, irishblogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.