Quantum
HEALTH
Issue 10 March 2011
Chinese, so when I was shooting them, half of them had to be women, and Chinese women were very camera shy. But in the end I got all the men and all the women, for each group, and I made average photos, combining all the men and then combining all the women, so I had the Face of Humanity Male and the Face of Humanity Female. I call them Mr and Mrs Universe! Then I merged those two to get the average of everybody–the Face of Humanity.
Q
You’re known for capturing the essence of your subjects in your photos, yet you also have admitted in your book that the camera lens
tends to keep you distanced from your subjects, almost serving as a protective mechanism. Please talk about how you can feel distanced behind the lens yet still are able to capture the essence of what you’re photographing.
To be honest, the camera still is, and probably always will be, some sort of a shield, even though it gives me sort of permission to look and stare and come closer. That permission is something of a tool that I use as a professional photographer. And I am very happy that I have it because it gives me the possibility to come in closer to people. But in reality, there is something that I am looking for in each person or in each shot that I can’t explain or I don’t know what it is before I see it. When I am looking through the lens I am in the moment and I’m in a concentration... looking for something that will trigger something inside that I recognise is what I am looking for. It’s a fleeting thing that happens. It’s like–there it is, and there it goes again! It’s not something that I can very easily force out. I can coax it out, you know. I can coax it out of people generally. It’s very important to have people relaxed. The journey, I guess, has been about becoming more comfortable behind the lens and knowing that each person, on the other side of the lens, may be uncomfortable. I think the most important part of getting a good shot, getting the essence, of anybody or anything is... there’s sort of an empty space that comes in every now and again–it’s like a butterfly that flies by and there it is and you have to just grab it! When you do, then you’ve got it! I think there’s nothing I can go in and get. It’s something I am observing and looking for, but sometimes, you
10 Quantum Health
know, you can’t find it. It’s not possible to get it out. It’s difficult to explain really.
Q
You have photographed so many different kinds of people in so many different situations over your career so far, is there something
common to most people that they keep hidden within? That they don’t easily show to the camera or to the outside world?
It’s got something to do with eye contact. Looking at a camera is invasive of personal boundaries. I say to someone ‘Look me in the eyes. Just keep looking at me in the eyes’. And I keep coming back to them and saying, ‘Just look me in the eyes’. But for them it’s like ‘Whoa!’ It’s very personal. It’s like crossing a border. Looking into the camera lens is a little bit like that, with the eye contact. It’s invasive to make eye contact! That’s the whole thing behind my idea of International Eye Contact Day, which is set for March 20, 2012, which grew out of this project. My photography has become more focused on the eyes.
Q
What’s International Eye Contact Day?
At the same time that I had the vision of the face of humanity in my mind’s eye, I also realised the healing quality of eye contact. Friendly eye contact and a friendly smile are catching! It’s like when you yawn in front of someone and that makes them yawn as well. So, looking at someone in the eyes and smiling, it lifts the spirit. I don’t know if it’s a chemistry thing, or what it is, but it’s something that is healing.
I was thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be amazing if everyone on the same day stopped and looked at each other?’ I just had this crazy idea that it could be an amazingly huge healing event if as many people in the world as possible, or as many people in your community as possible, could on this one day make a special effort to make friendly eye contact with others. With anyone who comes into their field of vision or into their space, whether at the supermarket or the tank station, or with friends, family, colleagues or just
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