Large format street portraits

This shoot of Wayne started off rather easily. I was shooting a photo of a row of buildings and Wayne dropped by to see what I was up to. It turns out he lives in one of the row houses and was curious about what I was doing. 

I explained my project to him and showed him a few of the images I've taken so far, which I keep in my day journal and bring along. He thought it would be fun to take part and we did this short session. This is often the way it works out with these shoots. I set up the camera and start shooting and people drop over and chat. The camera itself is a good conversation starter and I continue to use it for this reason. Shooting 4x10 film is much more hassle than other formats or digital but I continue with it because of the attraction it generates and conversations that get started.

I started with the wider shot and I still like that frame the best. I moved in twice for tighter shots and they look different from what I'm normally doing and I can see the advantage of changing things up, but I still like the wider shot shown at the bottom the most.

I'm not sure if it's because of Wayne's demeanor or because I've stopped drinking coffee but both Wayne and I seem very calm in these photos. 

The bottom image is one of my favourite from the series of street work done in Hamilton.

They're all shot on Ilford Delta 100 on a 4x10 camera as part of my on-going work on Kenilworth Avenue in Hamilton.

-Rob Skeoch 

Although I've worked as a photographer all my life, I'm currently back at school trying to finish my Master of Fine Arts Degree at the Maine Media Workshops and College. 

Cig Harvey is one of my mentors and the project I'm working on is a documentary on north Hamilton.

My retail store for rangefinder gear and Zeiss lenses is www.rangefinderstore.com 

My retail store for large format photo supplies is www.bigcameraworkshops.com