by Gary Fong
Photographer: Mary Schannen, http://melangephoto.com/
Click on photos to enlarge.
To be a kid again...a simple life free from worries, free to explore the greater backyard, and free to explore a land faraway on the play structures. Photographing that free spirit in children is easy and hard at the same time.
It’s easy because they soon forget about the camera minutes after it comes out to capture future memories. It’s hard because kid spirits are elusive to fleeting moments of life. The personalities of little ones often come to the surface interacting with like sized munchkins.
Waiting and watching for the lighting, the focus, and the often-missed moments is a skill of patience. Kids-being-kids moments are according to their schedule, not the photographers. Mary Schannen has many successful images of munchkin moments coexisting in time and space when the technical elements blend together with the art of life. Being a supermom with levitation skills doesn’t hurt either.
Now for the Nit Picking
B&W has a tendency to accentuate the light. Her study of light moves the eyes across the image, capturing details that hint at a time long past.
Yes, it may be a bit contrived to bring your own suitcase props for portraits (above left), but this type of shooting is not breaking news, where the integrity of the image needs to maintain an objective context. Rather, these are images designed to bring back memories…in some cases memories that may have never happened.
Conversion from color to B&W doesn’t mean the detail in the low key areas turn black (above center). If there is detail in the shadows, try to hold the tones in the print. It’s acceptable to burn down areas to move the eye, but it shouldn’t look manipulated to the point of consciousness. It should be subtle, while allowing the viewer to appreciate the detail in the cars and the boy’s sweater.
I’m pleased that Mary has allowed the kids to be kids…without the usual stiffness present in so many smile-for-the-camera sessions. I’m also pleased she has a nice lyrical flow of wonderment found so rarely in today’s gameboy generation.
What tools does one need to make photos like these? It takes a kid-being-kid and the patience of a lifetime.
I have seen hundreds and thousands of photographs over the last thirty years as a professional and a judge for PPA. I rarely, if ever, have seen talent like Mary's. Her photographs are creative, sensitive and illustrative. We will all see her name in lights!!! Ginny Felch (aka Virginia Clayton) http://www.photographingchildren.com