FORGET SELFIES!
How to take a proper photo
The selfie may be the millennial photo of choice but nobody really likes seeing them everywhere.
So to mark World Photography Day today, photographer Stuart Robertson is issuing a challenge — revert to the timeless art of the portrait.
“People are interested in seeing other things, not a picture of you walking your dog,” he said.
The world could take a break from its self- perpetuating lovehate relationship with selfies, Robertson said, and have a go at portrait photography instead.
And Robertson is an expert in the classic portrait. The selftaught photographer has landed some of Hollywood’s biggest A- list celebrities for his Peace in 10,000 Hands project.
The likes of Demi Moore, Danny DeVito, Emily Blunt, Ricky Gervais, Jamie Lee Curtis and Kiwi comedian Oscar Kightley took part in the campaign to raise $ 100 million for kids’ charities.
Each portrait shows the subject holding a white rose in a bid to ignite a global conversation on peace. They sell for as much as $ 30,000 and the money goes straight to relevant children’s charities around the world.
Robertson took his experience shooting portraits in some of the world’s toughest regions, including Russia, the Syrian border and Haiti, and used it to help tell the stories of 100 Kiwis in Huawei New Zealand’s 100 Portraits: Untold Stories project.
The project aims to provide insight into wider society and challenge Kiwis to consider people’s stories beyond face value.
One of three photographers using just a Huawei P10 smartphone, Robertson roamed Auckland’s Karangahape Rd at 2am and Wellington’s Cuba St at midnight, and other random places around New Zealand to capture true life stories.
“The challenge for mereally was finding these untold stories. I photographed people that were high on drugs, and prostitutes because it’s actually what makes it interesting.”
A portrait was about “sending them to a place where you capture this unguarded humanity”, and making the viewer do a double- take, he said.
The former TV presenter, magician and stage pickpocket, who owns a gallery in Queenstown, was tasked with finding out the best and worst things that had ever happened to his subjects.
“It was horrific: rape, child abuse, this sort of stuff.”
His number one tip, aside from good lighting, was to “collaborate” with the subject.
“Use all your worldly skills to relax and have a rapport with your subject — they need to trust you.”