Why I Love Portrait Photography

Becoming a portrait photographer was a very definite choice for me. When you’re looking for a photographer, you want to know what drives them, to see if their vision will be in harmony with yours. This is how and why I became a portrait photographer.

Photographing Property

I worked in a lettings agency for 15 years and photographing houses was pretty much the only part of the job I liked. When I met my husband, he urged me to find another career because my current one clearly wasn’t making me happy. 

I looked into a number of property related careers, but the idea of remaining in the industry made my heart sink. When I was on the phone to my mother, she suggested becoming a surveyor. I could only find a marker pen and empty pasta punnet on which I quickly scribbled down the word “surveyor”. When my husband came home he thought I’d left him a cryptic note he couldn’t decipher. He laughed at me first for this and then for considering another career as badly suited to me as the one I was already doing.

Studying Photography

I had an inkling I’d like to take photography further, but neither my graduate nor post-graduate degrees were in photography and it seemed impossible. My husband bought me a photography course for Christmas and after the first few classes, taught by the amazing John Migden at Canterbury Adult Education, I started to hope. I did a number of short courses before going on to study at Morley College in London. My home study was and, still is, intense – there is always more to know and I can’t get enough of it.

All the while I continued to photograph rental property where I applied everything I learnt.

Finding My Subject

Initially I thought I’d be happy photographing baked bean tins if it meant I could be a photographer. It didn’t take long for me to realise I simply wasn’t that interested in still life. Even at school, in art class, I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to paint fruit. Having studied, I can now appreciate still life, but it’s not for me.

I thought architecture would be my subject because I was already photographing property. I also loved landscape photography.

At a certain point, I wanted someone in my images. 

When I buy a painting, it’s never architecture and rarely landscape. It’s usually a portrait of a young woman. In my youth, while everyone else was putting up posters of their favourite bands, I was sticking images from fashion magazines and National Geographics to my walls.

Emotion in Portrait Photography

I’m fascinated by the emotion you find in tiny facial movements. There’s the barely perceptible frown that tells you something is amiss, the wide eyes that stare out of an image as the lips part and are frozen forever almost saying something, the small smile of unexpected pleasure. Then there are the hands that unconsciously act as a second mouth and the body that bends and straightens with pain or elation. It was the emotion of the person that kept me interested. So I started doing portraits, initially of my family and friends and anyone who would sit for me.

Editing can be a lengthy process so if your image doesn’t fascinate you, it’s difficult to give it the time and attention it needs. People hold my attention. 

Putting Portraits Into Context

After I’d focused solely on portraits, I found I wanted to put the landscape back into the image to give the portrait context and create a story that keeps you wondering and looking for clues.

We spend so much of our lives working and so if you don’t like your job, it has a big impact. I’m a photographer because it’s the thing I love and can’t stop doing.

I’d love to help you create a portrait that keeps you and your friends and family wondering what was going on in your mind when the image was captured. I’m Nina Carrington, a portrait photographer based in Faversham, Kent and just a short train journey from London. Portrait photographs are very personal so I always do a pre-shoot consultation to understand what you want from your images. Email me for a pre-shoot consultation.