Exclusive Interview with a BRILLIANT portrait photographer

Welcome to day 3 of an entire month of free online photography learning here at the Photography Campus Blog. This month it's all about Environmental Portrait Photography.

Today you're in for a special treat.

Jim McFarlane is one of our Instructors at the Photography Campus.

He actually does a course here on shooting food. But he's equally renowned for his photojournalism.

He's even been exhibited by invitation by the world famous Magnum Photographers. THE people for photojournalism.

I had the privilege of interviewing Jim for DESKTOP Magazine.  His photographic approach floored me. The guy's a gun.

I promised readers when this enviro portrait photography course went live I'd include Jim's interview.

It's longer than most posts but totally worth the read. I really hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to retweet and leave comments. Tell me whatcha reckon of the mighty Jim :)

I first met Jim McFarlane 3 years ago.

At the time my agency Joe Public, did all of King Island Dairy’s communications and we needed a gun food photographer.

Jim strolled in with two folios.

The first showed where his eye sat with regard to delicious food photography. 

Very nicely indeed.

The second showed where his heart sat, with regard to life.

Suffice to say, if you need a brilliant food photographer Jim delivers.

If you need your soul, mind and heart replenished, he fulfills.

Jim had just returned from Niger where he had shot a series of compelling images for UNICEF.

I had just returned from Congo and Rwanda, where I had photographed some stories for HEAL Africa. I don’t know if my work colleagues were frustrated at having to hear my stories again, or relieved I had someone else to share them with, but they endured as Jim and I swapped experiences, shots and dreams of doing it all over again.

Fast forward three years. I am building the photographycampus.com - an online photography education site, and in looking for someone to teach a course in advanced food photography and styling for the campus a mutual friend Sally Brownbill calls me and says, ‘you know you really should catch up with Jim, he’s a great teacher’.

So I do and 2 hours later I’m reminded of how great photographs tell great stories, and with stories comes learning, and with learning an ever so slight lessening of that imaginary gulf that separates ‘that world’ from ‘ours’.

For the first time in my life, I’m early to a meeting. I can’t wait to see what Jim’s been up to. I never expected to be as blown away as I was.

Jim has just returned from Gaza (as you do). This time around he’s done an assignment for ‘Save the Children.’ No small effort given Gaza is a place that’s virtually impossible for a photojournalist to get in to (let alone get out of) with cameras, shots, stories and themselves intact. His two folios are still in his studio. One with his commercial work (which continues to be excellent) the other with his humanitarian work which continues to be fed. I pull up a chair ready to replenish my appetite for wonder.

“I just want you to look at the work before I say anything” says Jim opening his photojournalism folio. “I’ve taken...an approach. I want to see your reaction to what you see without guidance from me”.

I learn forward in anticipation.

And then I open the book.

The first image is a beauty. A woman standing with her back to camera facing a wall upon which is sprayed some graffiti written in Arabic. 

What does the photograph say? Why does she have her back to us? Why can I only see the fingertips of one hand? I look at Jim. He gives me nuthin’.

I turn the page. Again I am confronted with a wonderfully balanced photograph, once more of someone with their back to me. “Ah I see” I think to myself...the brain cells get churning.

Page after page reveals superbly graphic, powerful and bold images of Palestinians standing motionless, backs to camera, faces to a myriad of scenes, sometimes seemingly benign, other times confronting. 

My eyes scan the page looking for clues. Each image has something which catches my eye. Something that could easily have seemed so incidental had it not been included in such a way as to become so incremental. This photography folio clearly had two things many folios didn’t; an idea and an ability to build upon itself with each and every composition.

Half way through I am stopped in my tracks by this shot. And I can resist no longer. Time to espouse my theory.

“It’s because they’re faceless isn’t it?” I offer. “We know they exist, we know their world exists but we are disconnected from it. It’s that rotten gulf again, the one between ‘them and us’.”

Jim smiles.

“Photojournalism often tells us what to think”, he explains. “It dictates to us. We see a crying child and we’re sad, or a joyful dance and we’re happy. I don’t want to tell people what to think anymore. I want to force them to ask questions. By taking away the face, the viewers eye searches for meaning in the shot. We start to notice the little things that say so much”.

“Which” I tell him, “is exactly why I love this shot(see the top photograph in this post). “Sure the chairs are dynamic and mesmerising (I’m told later it’s because the girl’s school has been blown up), but what really impacts on me is the ever so slight glance of her sneakers and are they jeans below her burqa?” It’s that tiny element that bridges the gulf for me. Would I have noticed it if I could see her face? Probably not. Would I have missed a compelling part of the story if I hadn’t noticed it? Without question.

With his Gaza photographic portrait series titled “Anti portraits of Gaza” Jim has managed to deliver what so many of us struggle to. He has managed to impact us in a genre which by virtue of its content often leaves us feeling more different and distanced than the same. 

I know from experience making hell look impactful is easy. Making it look relevant to our lives, is darn near impossible. 

Jim’s work will be touring the world as much of his previous exhibitions have already. (He was invited to exhibit his work alongside world renowned photographers from Magnum in Cannes last year.)

I’ll be spruiking it again here and on the DESKTOP blog when it tours Australia. For this project, he travelled with two other photographers, Anthony Dawton and Giuseppe Aquili. The project was supported by the Al Madad Foundation with logistical services supplied by Save the Children, London.

If you would like to contact Jim, drop him a line at jmcfar@mira.net Or let his photographs speak to you via his website at www.jimmcfarlanephotographer.com

After all, a picture speaks a thousand words.

Or is that asks a million questions?

By the way the Arabic word spray painted in the first shot says ‘Promise’. Did you expect that?

So what do you guys think of Jim's work? Have you engaged any ideas in your portrait work? Do you think photographers can be so bold as to manipulate situations like this? (To leave a comment register for free at the Campus. We're not selling your email address or details to anyone...)