Interviewed, Figure | @ Liu XiaoDao'er_ Editor| Chen Sheng ▶︎ This article is about 2900 words, and it takes 7 minutes to read the full text carefully
Hello everyone, I am a figureworm portrait photographer @ Liu Xiaodianer, currently based in Xi'an and Ankang, Shaanxi. I am a girl who loves plants and animals and currently has more than 100 potted flowers, 2 dogs and 3 parrots.
I am not a full-time photographer, but work in the government unit, and in my spare time, I set up our own photography studio with my husband, "Little Dude and Little Mao Photography Studio". In fact, my life is very busy every day, in addition to taking care of the flowers and animals at home, sometimes after work in the morning, I also have to use the noon break to run back to the studio to shoot guest films, and then go to work after shooting.
Because of my work, I can't have enough free time at my disposal like many full-time photographers. Many times I would take a train or plane to take pictures immediately after work on Friday, and come back in the middle of the night on Sunday before going to work on Monday and go straight to work. In the photography circle, my friends who were new to me thought I was a full-time photographer, and everyone was surprised how I switched back and forth between the two life states, but in fact, I used all the time available.
Earlier I listened to a public class by photographer @ Zhizhu, she said that she shot more than 300 groups of films a year when she was at work, and she said that she was not a talented person, and she could only work harder than others. I was shocked to hear that, and then I thought that others could work so hard why I couldn't, so I had my current state of life, although he was busy and hard, but I felt that everything was worth it.
What are your own guidelines for the choice of media for your work– digital and film?
In fact, I can shoot digital and film, but before shooting digital, I have not been able to find my own tone and style.
This is what I used to shoot digitally, and then a friend in the circle suggested that I try film. After that, I tried film for a long time, tried all kinds of film, tried all kinds of shops, and finally found my own style.
Film will make me more focused on the state of the model itself, because I can't see it, after taking one picture, I only need to control the model itself, I will keep looking back with digital shooting, an action may be repeated shooting, waste a lot of time, all attention is on how the photo is taken and not on the model, so now I basically use film shooting.
In your portrait portrait, the model's expression is very strong, the expression is very natural, do you have any special ways to guide the model's emotions?
Many photographers communicate with models before shooting, in fact, I am a person with severe social phobia, so after getting in touch with the model, I rarely communicate with the model before meeting the network except for a few words. When it is time to actually meet, I will communicate with the model.
Shooting at the beginning of the shooting state is not a good thing, each model also has their own shooting habits, some models are used to laughing when taking pictures, some models are used to taking pictures of the face immediately serious, but when shooting as a photographer we must be good at discovering the model's personal characteristics, such as what kind of emotions I think she is most brilliant, is it smiling, laughing, melancholy or sad? Once the model's personal characteristics are confirmed, make a slight adjustment and then guide the shooting.
Sometimes it is not necessary to make a particularly good work in one shot, and there can be a second and third shot. The first time I met each other, I wanted to make a particularly good work, and I felt a little rushed. For example, I shot with the model Nana.
When I shot this group of works, I met with the model Nana for the first time, in Shenzhen, she took pictures is habitual not to smile, the first time we both completed this group of works, most of them are not smiling. Coupled with the fact that the first time we were not very familiar, she could not laugh, and most of the laughter was not very good. When I came back, I found that although there were only a few pictures of her laughing, she laughed more contagiously than the works that did not laugh.
The most recent group of works, when Nana and I were shooting together, was taken in Xi'an, and this group of works is mostly based on happy laughter, and photos that do not laugh are interspersed as embellishments.
So for the model guidance, my advice is: the first shooting is the discovery and observation period, it doesn't matter if the shooting is not good, the second time, the third time and the fourth time continue to shoot, naturally it will get better and better.
Will there be a sense of burnout when shooting portraits for a long time? How do you overcome this burnout and bottlenecks?
There will be a period of tiredness in everything you do. Sometimes I spend time and energy to shoot a group of works, and the result is that the number of views is very low, the response is not very good, I will feel particularly discouraged, and I will wonder if I am not talented? Not suitable for taking pictures? Although he will be discouraged, he will eventually cheer himself up and encourage himself to persevere.
Because each model's personal characteristics are different, so when I shoot creative films, in order to avoid feeling tired, I will not go to the place where I have shot once, I will not go to the second time, and I will not use the clothes I have photographed before, and shooting different content according to the personal characteristics of the model will help me reduce this burnout.
How did you develop your work by focusing on the body language of the model and always capturing some small emotions in it?
Forming their own photography style I think is a very difficult thing, all the photographers who have found their own photography style, they are long-term insistence on taking pictures, to pay for photography to work hard, the formation of their own photography style is not to sit there and do nothing, close your eyes and think, the photography style is formed, to keep shooting, to repair the map, after a few months and years, will find their own shooting direction and retouching style.
In the first two years, I also shot everything, ancient style, emotional phoenix, and Japanese small freshness. Later, after taking this group of films in Dali, I found that what I really liked was the Japanese system.
After this group, I took a lot of Japanese style photos, but at that time, it was not the same in terms of tone, I watched a lot of Japanese photo albums from the 90s, and I liked the tone of the Japanese 90s photo album very much, and I began to try in this direction, and then I had the current tone style.
Do you have any photographers you particularly like? How have they influenced your photography? What do you think is the key to photographers' self-growth?
In fact, many of the photo albums of Japanese female stars in the 90s are particularly well shot, and some photo albums have always been classics now, such as photographer Morikawa Sheng's photo album "Relax" for Ryoko Hiromi, photographer Tatsuo Watanabe for Niigaki Yui "Mizumi Youth_ (17 years old)", including everyone knows Nobu Shinobu, are my favorite photographers. There is also a photographer in China who I like very much called Tang Zhixuan. They gave me a deeper understanding of portrait photography, and using the camera to capture those inadvertent moments is the best portrait photography.
△ "relax"—Noboru Morikawa
△ "Mizumi Youth_ (17 years old)" - Tatsuo Watanabe
Dedication and persistence – I think these are the keys to a photographer's self-growth. Doing anything is like this, only by continuing to work hard to pay for it, persevering to the end, there will be a return.
How has photography affected your life?
Photography made me more confident, I used to be a very inferior person, my father has been a strict scolding education for me since I was a child, causing me to feel that I will not do anything, since I started taking pictures, I have met more friends, recognized by models, recognized by guests, when they changed the avatar to the photo I took, I was particularly happy.
In the photography circle I also know more excellent photographers, they are very hard and hardworking, some photographers are younger than me, but their tenacious qualities are very impressive to me, my teacher @ Anshen Lu, @ Conch Shell and my friend @ Fuji Brother _june, they have given me a lot of help on the road of photography, I am very grateful to them.
In the future, whether I make money or not, I will always stick to photography, because photography makes me feel that my life is more meaningful.
I'm a figureworm photographer @ Liu Xiaoduner_
About the Tu Bug Canteen
"Figureworm Canteen" is a roundtable chat meeting where photographers gossip about creation and daily life, mixed with some dry goods. If you think your work is interesting enough, please leave a message or private message to recommend to us and join our future conversation.
▽ Click to learn more and watch more photographer interviews