Photography: Do You Take Enough Frames?

Three faces of Cemil

Both Jane Bown and Helmut Newton photographed Margaret Thatcher.

Jane Bown discusses how she took four reels of film of the prime minister. If she was using one of her Olympus OM-1 35mm cameras then this would amount to 144 frames. Even allowing for a little bracketing she probably made around 100 images of Lady Thatcher.

In his autobiography Helmut Newton writes: ‘I asked her would she please sit on this chair and cross her legs. Her legs were not bad at all. She sat down but did not cross her legs. I put my little old Fuji camera on my tripod, she cocked her head and smiled kind of sourly at my lens. I asked her to straighten her head and please be serious. She replied, “Oh, but one looks so disagreeable when one does not smile.” At last she stopped smiling, and I clicked the shutter. Everything was over. She left royally.’

It’s true that Jane Bown used far less film when photographing many of her subjects, notably Samuel Becket, but it seems that established portraitists are often given the opportunity to experiment over several frames as a dialogue evolves.

Jane Bown took three films of Queen Elizabeth II at her most recent sitting for the photographer, the last at the Queen’s invitation.

Paradoxically, unless one is photographing a would-be model, it’s quite difficult to get friends and acquaintances to pose for more than a few frames, I don’t suppose I took more than twelve frames in all of Hatice and Cemil!

No more Mr. Nice guy!

This entry was posted on Monday, January 4th, 2010 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Olympus E-3, Olympus OM System, Photography, This Wonderful World, Turunc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Author

Difficilis,querulus, laudator temporis acti.
Sepuero, castigator, cesorque minorum

Stephen Jeremy Maxwell Bray lives with his wife Irem, and daughter Amazon at Amos, Turunc near Marmaris, Turkey..

If you agree that this web site is a scabby, thumb-twiddlin' rag; written by a testy, grumbling individual who is inclined to praise the way the world was when he was a boy, whilst always playing the critic and censor of the current generation. Then why not recommend it to your friends, or if you prefer, your enemies?

You cannot lose, either may appreciate your gesture. Your enemies may even become your bosom friends, and if not nothing is lost, indeed they might waste so much time surfing these pages that they will sink into total obscurity, and never bother you again.

We do not store e-mail addresses during this process. Both your privacy and that of your friend(s) are assured.

Pebbles From Paradise