A Street Portrait Critique with Kirk Truman

In this episode, British portrait photographer Kirk Truman joins me to critique a set of reader-submitted street portraits. We talk about candid versus posed photography, photographing children, and the ethics of approaching strangers, and Kirk closes by looking back at one of his own favourite holiday photos.

A Street Portrait Critique with Kirk Truman

In this episode, British portrait photographer Kirk Truman joins me to critique a set of reader-submitted street portraits. We talk about candid versus posed photography, photographing children, and the ethics of approaching strangers, and Kirk closes by looking back at one of his own favourite holiday photos.

Introduction

"Hello photographers, welcome back to the channel. Today I'm here with Kirk Truman, a British photographer specializing in portraits. Hello Kirk, how are you doing today? Thank you for joining me."

I'm doing well, Martin, how are you?

"Yeah, great. The idea behind this is that I'm going to show you pictures from our community, from people who submitted them to be reviewed, and I would like to ask you for your constructive criticism, or your opinion, what do you think about those, and how would you rate them, as if they were probably your own. So let's start with the first one, I've got it up in front of me here."

@oms1959

Well, this first feature of this lady, yeah, I love it, it looks to me like the way the photographer would have approached this picture would have probably been, either building their trust or confidence, and then asking, do you mind if I take the picture. But I love this kind of documentary photography, it's raw, and it looks to me like it hasn't had masses of treatment to it either, it's not been massively edited, it's just a raw portrait, capturing this moment of this lady. I don't know anything about her background, I think there are hints here, like where in the world she's probably from, or where she lives, but it's stunning, it's stunning, I love the kind of silveriness to it as well, it looks like digital to me, well, it is digital, but it's stunning, it's stunning.

"Anything you would, I wouldn't say change, but would you approach the scene, or would you take it like this?"

Me, I mean, I wouldn't take a picture like this, this isn't my kind of style of work, I like documentary photography, I've done a lot of it, past and present, and a lot of my portraits are kind of like, I'm really trying to get someone to come out and show their heart, and really be themselves, but this, to me, the photographer clearly saw this moment and wanted to approach it and just capture it as it is.

"I feel okay, thank you, moving on to the next picture."

@stefankurzeja

I love street photography like this, this is a game, this is like, I mean, you can't, this is the best part about images like this, is that you can't, I don't think you can, at least you shouldn't anyway, you shouldn't try to stage stuff like this. I love it, this looks like it's on public transport, like a bus or maybe a tram, somewhere, assumingly, like in Europe, and yeah, I love it, I love the contrast between this younger girl here on the left and the slightly older woman on the right, I love that they're back to back, but they're not facing each other. I love that you've kind of got this, well, looks like a hand railing at the bottom of the picture here as well, I really like that cut-away, and there's these really dark patches in the image as well, at the base, at the top, which looks like where the window is of a bus or a tram, I love it. I do take images like this myself as well, I was in Finland very recently, visiting a photographer friend of mine, and we were doing a lot of pictures like this whilst we were away together, just walking around Helsinki and capturing what the city looks like. I love it, it's really, really stunning, but I kind of feel there's this contrast of old and new here that I really like.

"And do you mind the subject being a little too close to the edge, especially the young lady on the left?"

No, not at all, I think it's nice, I mean, the second they heard that shutter, they might have gone, oh, I don't, I mean, I think this person clearly didn't ask to take this picture, or maybe there's a possibility the younger girl on the left might be the partner of the person in the picture, and you might have said, oh gosh, and that might be staged in some respects, to get that symmetry, I don't know, but I love it, it's really lovely, but it looks like, again, it looks like a really natural moment that's been captured.

Martin's photo

Oh, she's stunning, I mean, that's a headshot really, isn't it, that's like taken with full permission of the subject, and they've kind of gone, you know, stand and just take it, and it's lovely, it looks a lot like a headshot to me. I don't know the story behind this, obviously, I don't know any of the background, but it's a really stunning portrait, I mean, I might have said, I don't know the context of the picture, but if I was the person taking an image like this, I might have said, oh, maybe try another one, look over there, or try and capture a different kind of mood from them, or something like that, but it's a really beautiful portrait.

"All right, do you have something you focus on when you take a portrait like this, if you can see the person's face, do you try to position it to look better when you take the picture?"

I mean, I find my favourite pictures of people I take are kind of like when I'm doing portrait sessions or whatever, my favourite pictures are when I catch people off guard, so it's the pictures in between the pictures we want to be taking. If we set up a moment where we'll do some pictures, it's the pictures in between that I find more special, because you end up catching these moments where people are acting like they're just walking down the street as themselves, or they act like they're just sitting on the sofa, or just being themselves, and that's when you really see the humanity of somebody. But also, as I always say, the hardest thing to be is yourself, so actually just taking that picture straight down the camera is really hard. So it's a nice picture, I mean, I like it, it's not my kind of photography, but it's still a really nice portrait.

@T_prime84

Here we have a double exposure, which looks like a digital double exposure to me, it looks like someone's taken two JPEGs and overlaid them in Photoshop, and this, primarily, this technique obviously started on film, photographers evolved it from there to use it and create digital versions as well. It could be film, but I'm pretty sure, because of how sharp it looks to me, that it's a composite. But it's a really stunning picture, I mean, this is, I do a lot of double exposure work in my photography, and I get a lot of fun out of doing them, and the fun part of doing them on film is that you think you've layered something up, and get it back from the lab, and sometimes it's maybe not quite in the position you want it to be, or it's in a completely different position, and you end up creating these really stunning images out of doing it, which is great. But this one, I love that the hand kind of goes through the face like that, and you've got the lighter space going through there to bring out the eye looking at you, it's really nice. I really like it in landscape, actually, I mean, I would usually take something like that in portrait, just because I take a lot of pictures with the intention of putting them on Instagram, or as part of my portfolio, but I really like this in landscape, it's really stunning, I want to know who this photographer is, it's my favourite I've seen so far.

"Let's take a look at the next one."

@taoistpunk

Little baby being created by a lady wearing a questionable t-shirt. I love it, I don't know the story behind it, I love the child taking full eye contact with the camera, it's interesting, with kids, I guess, when you're photographing kids, like, I did a commission recently where I had to photograph some kids, and I'm like, I don't know, they probably know more about cameras at an early age than I did when I was growing up in the 1990s, but they still have this curiosity of looking at cameras, kind of going, huh, what is this thing this person's sticking in my face. But I really like it, children are a very interesting subject, I don't spend a lot of time around kids, if I'm honest, I don't have any, but they are really, really interesting, actually my friend has a son now, and it's always interesting hanging out with him, I've not taken a picture of his son, but it's always really interesting just being around kids and seeing that sort of curiosity, of like, huh, where am I, that's kind of what I get from this child.

"I'd love to know what the story is behind this, what is the context behind this picture, has this been taken for the media, or is it as simple as taking a picture of a relative or something like that?"

Well, I really don't know, it's a bit stunning, kids always look stunning.

"Do you have any tips or tricks when photographing kids?"

Kids, oh god, I don't know, I'm still learning, to be honest, I did a fashion shoot a few months ago for a brand we have here in the UK called Reiss, and it was one of the craziest mornings I've had this year, I photographed a group of kids for about two, three hours, and I should also add, these kids, their mums and dads were in film and TV and presenting, so they were quite theatrical anyway. Some of the kids were really shy, and I always like having a laugh with people, so I got them into the energy of it, and we got some great pictures, and then some of the other kids were like, take my picture now, and I was like, wow, you are literally the easiest subject I've had this year. No, I don't know, children of all ages are still learning, and I think it depends on your character as a person, I mean, I'm very much like, my camera, I push it on my strap behind my back, and I'm kind of shut out of the way, and I'm more interested in talking to people and getting to know them, and actually humanizing them, and asking them questions and understanding them, and I think that applies to people of all ages, you have to just connect with your subjects, and really genuinely take an interest in somebody, and then try and capture their humanity. So it just kind of goes from there, it depends what you're doing, if you're doing a commercial job, sometimes you don't always have that time, because you're really working quickly to try and achieve the best images, but I think you need to find those moments to connect with your subject.

"So, I don't know how you connect with a one or two year old."

You just kind of go, oh my god, and just go from there, that's a good start, just be interested, and make a conversation that you would with anybody.

@robshum

I really like smoking pictures, but I really avoided them the past few years, just because I did used to smoke when I was younger, and I thought it was really cool, but now I just know it's really bad for me. So I do really like this picture, and I love things with smoke, it's really difficult these days to do pictures like this, I think, of course, we should, we still know people smoke, and now a lot of people use vapes as well, but I think there's so much fun to be had playing with smoke or with vape and stuff like that, but you should kind of, it's a stunning image, and it doesn't matter whether a person is smoking or vaping, either way, this is a really, really stunning image. But to get this kind of image, I think the photographer probably would have said, okay, take another drag, and then to get that kind of soft path, what looks like a cigar, okay, the smoke going over his eyes, but no, that's really cool, that's a really great shot, I really like it, it's a nice portrait.

@amith_kadasur

"Moving on."

This almost looks like, I think it looks like it was taken at a film premiere, because there appears to be a cinema in the background, I think it is, I don't know what the film is, I think it's some kind of festival, or maybe it's like Day of the Dead in Mexico City, or something like that, I don't know, but it's really stunning. It also looks like that young girl is taking a selfie, I love that she's out of focus, but it's nice, it's nice sort of journalism or documentary photography, it's really nice, I really like the contrast between her and the character behind her, this really scary guy.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'd like to run into this guy on a dark night."

Yeah, it's cool, it's cool, I mean, it looks like something that was taken for like Brass, or a paper, or a news feed, or something like that, it's really stunning.

@cmazmanian

"Let's take a look at this one."

Okay, so it is Pride month, so maybe this was taken for Pride month, I have no idea, but there's a lot of stuff going around like this at the moment, to represent the LGBTQ community, and I think it's really important, there was actually a festival in London this weekend called Mighty Hoopla, for example, and that was sort of a primarily LGBTQ festival, and I saw a lot of pictures of that festival being posted at the weekend, from a lot of people I know here in London, who, I think a lot of them are straight anyway, or gay, or straight, whatever, it doesn't matter, whatever they are, that's why it's really important that we're showing diversity these days, and I'm more for capturing these kinds of portraits. But yeah, it's really, really nice, I don't know what the moment was, I don't know what's going on in the background, you can see a street sign, actually, this looks to me like maybe it was taken in London.

"Oh, really?"

I'd say it's probably taken in London, or in the UK, it looks like it could be the UK to me, you've got lots of sash windows behind the subject, I don't a hundred percent recognize where it is, but it looks almost like there's a market behind them, or something like that.

"Yeah, it's cool, I like it. I was just wondering, if you take shots like this outside, would you position the subject against the background like this?"

Mine, I would usually pick on people on the street, I usually tend to say, oh, I know, I can see a spot over there where the lighting is really interesting, and probably take them off somewhere and position them somewhere where I can do something interesting with the light. In most cases, people tend to say yes when you approach them for pictures, it usually helps if you show them, on your phone, some pictures that you took recently, just so they know you're not like a weirdo or something like that, just to give them context and show them that you're actually a serious photographer. But this image actually reminds me a lot of the work of a photographer based in London called Derek Ridgers, Derek Ridgers has done a lot of photography of the club scenes here in London, starting in the 1970s, and he still does it now, he's photographed lots of youth movements, and, as always, his work plays with gender identity and such, and it does kind of remind me of Derek's work, and Derek's work is always primarily black and white as well, so it's really stunning.

"And, in terms of composition, would you cut the legs like this, or do you mind?"

I don't mind, I think, for me, when I'm taking pictures, I don't really know until I'm there, I have to be there to see the environment, I don't know what's behind the photographer, I might have said, oh, there's a cool arch over here somewhere, we can go to this arch, or there's an interesting bit of shadow being made by a fence or something like that, and we could go stand there, and I might say to one of them, lean on the other one, or, I don't know, it all depends on the chemistry you have at the time with the subjects, that's how I work, I mean, all photographers do things a little differently. I really like this, it looks like the photographer's got something in between the camera and the subjects, and I always like doing that, one thing I often do is use my hand to frame as I'm shooting, and you get these nice blur lines and such. The only thing, if I was doing this, I probably would have done it in black and white, just because then you don't get the sort of blur in this kind of colour, you get it just in different shades of grey, but no, it's really stunning. I don't know the context of the picture, this girl looks like she's having a nice drink, I like her glasses, but I don't know the context on the picture, but the colours are really beautiful, digital photography, of course, but yeah, it's great, I love it.

@shorty.shots

"Let's take a look at this one."

Interesting, this again appears to be street photography, don't know the context behind it, but this, there's something to me, like this guy owns this shop, and someone's kind of walked in, could be like in the Middle East or something like that, that's the kind of vibe I'm getting from it, and this person might just pose for a picture when this person's gone into the shop, and the guy's clearly kind of going, come on, take my picture, this is what I look like, this is me, I don't know, that's what it looks like to me, it looks like a shop, or maybe someone's kitchen, but it looks more like a shop to me than anything else. But I don't know where in the world, but I love this, and I love how, if you look very closely, you can actually see the photographer in the guy's glasses as well, it's really cool.

@salman_almadoug

"All right, next one."

I like it, I don't really do pictures like this personally, but I do like this, it looks like a market to me, I love the colouring, I love the darker space there on the right, and the light on the left, really nice, but yeah, kind of like a market or something like that, nice bit of street photography.

"Those are really unusual colours, right?"

Yeah, I don't miss it, it's not flash photography, but it almost looks like they've used flash, because you've got such a dark section there on the right, but there's obviously some kind of light coming in there, which is really nice, it's neither warm nor cold, it's kind of this blend of two, I would say, colour temperatures, yeah, it's really nice.

@pupilpriority

All right, referencing the pandemic, taking an evening, this young lady looks like she's standing underneath a street light, or something like that, and I like that, I think this is a really nice example of street photography, where you can actually use your surroundings and get a light source to illuminate your subject, it's really, really nice, I like the background, it's really blurred and out of focus and darker, and you can kind of see the dark blue of the sky behind her, that's really, really nice, it's stunning. I actually did a project during the pandemic where I went out and photographed a lot of people, it kind of reminds me a little of that kind of stuff people were doing, especially in 2020, when it was also new to us all.

@kirktruman

"All right, moving on to the last picture, appears to be one of mine."

Yeah, this was taken on holiday, at the very end of 2019.

"Would you change something if you look at it right now?"

No, I love that picture, I remember taking that very specifically, I really like that picture actually, it's a bit of an optical illusion, I'm trying to remember how it is now.

"Is it your hand?"

My hand is in front of the camera, yeah, it's not her hand, I can't remember how we cast the shadow over her face now, because this was taken in Fuerteventura, in the Canary Islands, where there's just as good light pretty much every day, I've never been there and hardly ever seen a cloud in the sky, it's a desert environment, so it's great light there. I can't remember now, I think I've got my camera and I'm doing this, and Georgie, here in the picture, I think she maybe has got her hand on my hand like this, I think that's how we did it, but the light I think is actually, I'm lost, I'm lost now, I think either it's her hand up to the camera, or I'm like this, casting a shadow, okay, I think that's what we're doing now, but it was quite a long time ago. But yeah, I really like that picture, we were on holiday, and we were just out driving, and we'd stop and sit in the sand for a few hours, and I always have my camera with me, so we just took some pictures.

Closing

"All right, so thank you, thank you for joining me today."

You're very welcome, thanks for having me, a surprise, I didn't expect to see one of my pictures at the end there, but there you go.

"All right, perfect, so yeah, thank you once again, and have a nice day."

Thank you for joining me, thank you for having me, Martin, bye-bye, ciao.