Creative Paths
Photographing around important subjects can yield subtle details that add layers of intrigue
Michael Freeman shoots around his subjects
This was an assignment in Hong Kong for one of those large, multi-photographer books that became popular after the start of the Day In The Life series. There were typically 30 to 50 photographers who flew in from around the world to one city, and everyone shot intensely for a week. They were also media events to gather publicity, and therefore highly coordinated. This particular book was Return to the Heart of the Dragon, a joint publication by two publishers who became good friends of mine, Didier Millet and Charles Orchard.
When I say highly coordinated, there were hundreds of pre-planned assignments that kept us all busy from morning till night – covering every aspect of life that the organizers could think of. They had done their job well.
The entire operation was planned as well as if this had been from the news desk of a major newspaper, and better than most. One of the assignments given to me, and for which I had a couple of hours, was the cancer ward of a hospital. It was going to be difficult. Not from the point of view of access and restrictions, however, because all the permissions had been worked out beforehand and I was welcomed.
Put on the brave face
One patient, a young man and his family, had agreed to be photographed, which was really something, because he was not in a good way. But any patient resident in a cancer ward is at a serious stage. Of course, that’s where I went first, and the family was visiting and, thankfully, incredibly accepting of the intrusion of a photojournalist – everyone was putting on a brave face.
I couldn’t help thinking that this was such a typical photojournalistic situation – they meet people for the first time, when they’re in a crisis and have to quickly insert themselves into the moment and do the job, without much time. To anyone who doesn’t do this, it sounds superficial – photography skimming the surface as usual – but it isn’t at all like that. Any photographer doing their job properly is extremely aware of the undercurrents and consequences, because that’s our training, and often we’re actually struggling against superficiality.
With normal reportage and not much time (that’s arguably the worst part), you’re hoping that something in the human interaction of the moment will stand out and be special enough to make the image mean something. We all know how to use a camera and deal with interaction, but the moment itself may simply not happen. That was the case here, and I think I’ve described the dilemma well enough, so that I don’t need to show the best picture from that situation. It showed everything, but nothing more. In other words, it didn’t do justice to the situation. Brave faces,
To anyone who doesn’t do this, it sounds superficial – photography skimming the surface as usual – but it isn’t at all like that
which were what everyone was putting on, don’t reveal much. I forced myself to think differently and when I’d finished asked to be shown around, everywhere.
I shifted my attention to, well, stuff… Whatever things, like equipment, at whatever scale, were involved in cancer treatment. And came across these masks, stacked waiting to be used, and for some reason – good for me – in a backlit cabinet. I knew nothing about the masks themselves, but they hold the patient’s head in position for the treatment of brain cancer with high-energy beams, and are marked with a target for that beam. This was some time ago, and I think the masks may look quite different now, but what struck me was the strangeness of these three.
I didn’t think it was too fanciful to see almost human expressions in them – and not good expressions either, with their gaping hole for the mouth.
Deal with it
This is an impromptu still life, and I’m a great believer in still life taken seriously. So, when I say collateral, I mean that what goes on around a subject or situation, on the edges if you like, may sometimes show more than what’s right in the centre of the frame. Yes, it’s a journalistic way of thinking and it’s very much about trying to tell a story, and a picture like this will definitely need a caption, even if a short one, to trigger a response in the audience. But it’s a way of dealing with some of the more difficult assignments you come across.