Creation / Age
For me, photographing "age" is one of the most interesting aspects of portrait photography. I find older people generally interesting (of course, you have to work hard to get beyond the usual polite chit-chat), but once the ice is broken, they have a lifetime of stories, wisdom, and concepts.
But "breaking the ice" is only the first part. The second part is where the magic begins: After you’ve talked a bit, laughed a bit, or whatever you do to get comfortable with each other, you come to the vital part: You create stillness. Absolute stillness. They LOOK at you, and you SEE everything. As if the whole life is written down on their face.
I think I mentioned in another post that portrait photography is 90% psychology and 10% timing. But with older people, you don't need psychology or timing. All you need is COMFORTABLE stillness. (In contrast to uncomfortable stillness— in uncomfortable stillness, you will get a portrait that says nothing at all.)
I’ve always felt that photographing people—especially in portrait photography—humans are a bit like candles: Kids flicker like crazy, and you need to find a way to entertain them to control the flame. But with old age, the flame gets increasingly still, and at some point, it’s as if the flame is denying time.
Case Study / Eire
Eire (which is Gaelic for Ireland) is a book project I started not too long ago. For the cover, I wanted an Irish fisherman with a face that captures all the qualities I love so much about Ireland: I wanted a face quite old, yet with young eyes, or, to put it better: Rough and old, yet soft and nearly childlike. But most importantly, a face quite serious, yet full of wit.
In fact, a face of a person you only find in Ireland: A face where you're not quite sure if he was serious or taking the piss. (Taking the piss is an Irish expression that basically means the person in front of you is bullshitting you without you even knowing it. So wonderfully captured in Martin McDonagh's movie The Banshees of Inisherin with Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell.)
Once I found the person with the right face (Tim), the most difficult part was convincing him that taking his picture wasn’t pretentious, that nobody would think of him as taking himself too seriously, or worse, "showing off." (Which again and again only proves a point I made in a different post: When people ask, "Why me??" that alone already bears the answer: "Exactly because of THAT.")
Some technical notes: I used one light source, close to Tim's face, held by my left hand so I can move the light in such a way that both eyes are clearly visible, yet the wrinkles in the face are pronounced as well. The camera is on a tripod, and the lens is fairly short (55mm).
I nearly never have them sit because that usually pulls all the energy away from the face and makes them concentrate too much on HOW they are sitting. I rather let them stand and make sure they are not too close to the background wall. Close enough to get a nice play with their shadow, but far enough to keep the shadow soft.
Because both my hands are holding the light and camera, everything has to be lightweight (especially the lens, as some of the better lenses weigh half a ton).
And finally: Even if the "comfortable talk" can take anywhere between 5 and 15 minutes, and the "stillness" phase around 2 minutes, the actual shooting is done in less than half a minute, with a maximum of 10 exposures.
What I’m trying to say is: If the person you want to portray has a certain age, the story is already there. All you have to do is make the person comfortable, allow some time of doing NOTHING, and the images will come. All you have to do is create a light that enhances the story.