Children’s portraits on the farm;
by children’s portrait photographer, Thea Courtney
This set of photographs were taken over the Christmas holiday, whilst staying at my friends farm in Wales. There were plenty of moments to capture as the children played all around me, in beautiful winter light . Indoors, the natural light coming from windows offered high contrast, perfect for black and white images.
The wonderful thing about photographing children is that they are so involved in what they are doing that they forget that they are being photographed. It’s often tempting to direct your subject, but the best images are always the most natural and real, and these photographs can only be made if you allow the action to unfold naturally, and let the childrens’ imaginations lead the way. There’s actually so much going on where there are 10 children under one roof, that to disturb their games and ask them to sit for a portrait is unnecessary. I think these photographs will mean more to the children when they are older than a portrait where they sat for the photographer, because they will have the memories that accompany the images. Memories of playing dressing up games with hats, feeding the new baby as the dog hangs around for dropped tidbits, exploring the farmyard with friends and hanging out together playing on tablets and reading books.
I choose to embrace and photograph real life as it happens all around me. Sometimes real life can be not so great, but when I have my camera in my hand nothing else matters. I can literally shove the piles of dirty laundry out of sight and concentrate on the more interesting stuff, such as how to compose an image of the children playing in the soft light over there by a window. In the words of National Geographic photographer Sam Abell regarding composition; “I’ve composed the photograph intensely enough, so that none of the chaos is visible and all of the poetry is centred”. However, I’m not interested in capturing a fabricated, perfect existence. A merely pretty picture will soon loose my attention. If photographs document real life, real emotions and hold memories that are important then I will never tire of them and the images will have a life of their own. I work with my clients in the same way that I approach my personal work. I get to know the family I’m photographing so that I can blend in with them and so that they feel relaxed and comfortable around me. Once I’ve spent some time with them, playing with the kids and chatting with the adults, the presence of the camera is forgotten and I can document their lives with authenticity, and a liveliness you just don’t find in overly directed shots.
