Photograph People at Work: Taking environmental pictures of people working.
Photographing People at Work
Every day we're surrounded by people at work: men putting a new roof on
the house next door, people selling produce at the farmers' market,
etc. But how often do you stop and capture these bits of daily life
with your camera? In large part all of these people who keep the fabric
of our life together go unnoticed and undocumented. We tend to develop
a blind spot to everyday events. But the things people do for a living
are often quite visually interesting. Recently I had a big old maple
tree taken down in my backyard and I got so fascinated watching them
work I decided to document their amazing skills (and courage--the tree
was nearly 90-feet tall). I probably shot 100 or so images during the
several hours that they worked.
Once the tree cutters had the
tree down, I went inside, downloaded the images and printed a few of
the guy that did most of the cutting. When I have him the print he
seemed somewhat shocked. At first I thought he was just surprised that
I was able to give him an 8x10-inch print in just a few minutes. But
the story was far more interesting: It turns out he'd never seen a
photograph of himself at work and--even more incredibly--his mother
back in Central America hadn't seen a photo of him in the 12 years he'd
been living and working here. I was stunned. In all the time he was
living here he'd never had a photo taken of himself to send home.
Of
course I gave him prints to send home to her and he was overwhelmed and
very grateful. Here I was just trying to pass the time and put some
more images into my library and those photos became a connection
between a mother and son thousands of miles apart. Everyone has a story
to tell, as a photographer it's your job to help them tell it visually.
If you're trying to break into professional photography, or just selling the occasional photo, then photographing people working can be a great way to build up a client roster. When I was still in high school I photographed every band I could find locally and then sold them prints--bands are always looking for recent photographs of themselves, on stage and off. Over the years I've also spent a lot of time photographing the men and women who work at unusual industries--many of them right in my own town.
I photographed the men working on an oyster boat (at right) on the Housatonic River near my home and having photos of local industries and workers has gotten me a lot of photo jobs for the town. I guarantee, if you get good shots of people in the industries in your hometown, you will find a market for those photos. Almost all towns, regardless of size or location, have a city website that promotes both industry and tourism; find the people that are in charge of developing those sites and you will find a market for your photos of people at work.
Tree cutter at work: You never know how your photos of people will change their lives.
Blues singer Miss Marie from Professor Louie and the Crowmatix is at home working on a stage.
Oyster fisherman working on the Housatonic River in Connecticut.
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Entire Site Contents Copyright 2012 Jeff Wignall
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