ivysion

The majority of my time last week was spent editing images from several recent shoots.  One of those shoots was a portrait session with Steven F. Hill, better known as Minister Steve.  He is a Christian Minister and singer who I met a few weeks ago through a mutual friend.  He wanted some new images for his promotional materials and I had a few ideas in mind.

I used to think that the role of a portrait was to capture the essence of the subject. My experiences through the years, however, have taught me that it’s impossible to capture the entire essence of a person in just a single image.  Human personalities, of even the most uncomplicated of us, are much too complex to achieve that feat.  We have all been in situations where we see someone, whether on the street, in the grocery store or at a social function, and there’s something about that person that intrigues us.  There’s something about them that makes us to want to know more.  That’s the same way I’ve approached my portraiture.  My challenge is to offer a glimpse into the personality of my subject that draws the viewer to want to know more.

Minister Steve is primarily a singer with a quiet personality. Quiet, but not shy or reclusive.  He seems to best express himself through the instrument of his voice.  To me, the obvious image to show his personality, was to capture him singing.  I had a few other ideas as well, and after we captured them, I asked him to sing.  He seemed both apprehensive and eager to fulfill my request.  When he started to sing, it was obvious that he was in his comfort zone.  Shooting was easy as I fired off frames while he did his thing. It was one artist capturing another artist.

These are a few images from the shoot.  I’m happy with all of the results, but really like what we were able to get of him singing. I think they’re the best ones.  Hopefully, these images will serve him extremely well in opening new opportunities to express his artistic passions to new audiences.