Recently I was reminded of a talk given by photographer Alec Soth at the Seattle Art Museum. He talked about his development as a fine art photographer from his early days up to the present and showed a lot of samples of his work. He answered questions at the end and discussed how he goes about making the kind of portraits he makes, sometimes very intimate portraits. He has a unique ability of getting people to open up their lives to his camera and share their most intimate thoughts and feeling. His book Niagra was the prime example of this kind of work. He mentioned that not all of his Magnum collegues were as admiring of this work.
At lunch with him afterwards I mentioned meeting Eisie and photographing him for an assignment for New York Newsday. He was celebrating his 90th birthday at the time and was still coming into work everyday at Life Magazine. He has long been the photographer I looked up to and was extremely nervous making his photograph . I was saved by discovering that he was very uncomfortable being on the other side of the camera and wanted to help me shape and control his portrait session. I obliged enough to allow him to become comfortable and in return got to make a portrait I was happy with.
Photographs by wedding photographer Daniel Sheehan, a Seattle photographer who specializes in people and portraits and travels to photograph weddings in a photojournalist style that is real, artistic and unobtrusive. Named the best Seattle wedding photographers by the Wedding Photojournalists Association.
All photographs on this website are by Daniel Sheehan © 2010. All Rights Reserved. Please inquire for permission before using.