MIAD-FA382

Untitled © Katie Guth

This summer, I spent most of my time photographing either journalistically, or for my internship. When I got time, though, I'd try to use my sister (pictured) as my subject. It's difficult for me to work with people, since I've always been more-so into landscape photography, or nearly anything but people. However, my internship forced me to work with all different kids, and I've been learning so much more about posing them within the frame. Typically, I hate posed photos. I believe that photos of people capture something special, something deeper than what's actually seen, and when people pose for the camera with a predictable smile, I find them almost sort of repulsive and irritating. Rather, if I'm photographing people of any sort, I prefer to catch them off guard, or in the moment.

With that being said, I went about this shoot for experimental purposes, working with different lighting techniques and playing around more with posing versus the natural and not particularly following my inspiration from any other photographers. I took this photo knowing my subject well and trying to talk to her while photographing her. I'm not going to lie, she is terrible at posing naturally, so for me, it's not easy to catch compelling photos of her. Here, however, I'm attracted to many different aspects of the photograph. I'm not too fond of the way she appears to be slouched over, but I love that she's not looking at the camera, and rather looking up, with a gorgeous light in her eyes. Her eyes give me a sense of relaxation and peace. They feel hopeful, optimistic, comforting.

Being able to connect to my subject so personally makes me biased and see things a lot easier than an average viewer, whom might just oversee this image. Though, I just can't help but love the way it makes me feel, and how it connects with me on a deeper level, in a religious manner.

This semester I don't plan to work with people a lot. I'm not quite sure where I'll be venturing off to, but using people as subjects is something I feel that I'm not quite ready myself to experiment with in the depths of this course, but I may be wrong.