All posts filed under: Storytelling

Poochie Collins on writing love letters with light

It was with a camera gifted from her grandfather documenting her college years that Brooklyn-based portrait photographer Poochie Collins first discovered her love of photography. As an introvert attempting to avoid having to talk to people, she started shooting street photography, preferring to keep her distance and observe from afar. Today, she uses her skill and perception to catch the little, intimate details about her subjects which she draws out with her sympathetic style of portraiture and captures spontaneous moments in time. We spoke to Poochie about her creative process, her intentions and inspiration when shooting her subjects, and how she gives her audience the chance to experience the Black community from a different vantage point. For a deep dive into Poochie Collins’ perspectives on a selection of her photographic portraits, watch the webinar. You describe your work as writing love letters with light and creating visual time capsules. What do you consider when planning your shoots? Funnily enough, I very rarely actually plan out a shoot. Most of the time, even with doing portrait …

Three Black photographers who explore the world through color

There is a reason we don’t see the world in black and white. Colors are an integral part of how we experience life and how we communicate. For a photographer, colors are another tool to set a mood and help tell a story, and getting them right can make or break an image. In celebration of Black History Month and the role color plays in our lives, we spoke to three photographers, who are all part of the Black Woman Photographers collective, about their work and how they explore their subject matters with color. Daniella Almona For a photographer, understanding color is just as important as understanding composition and angles. At least to Lagos-born, Atlanta-based photographer Daniella Almona. With her portraits, she works to highlight blackness in all forms and plays with highly saturated colors in backdrops, props, clothes, and make-up to bring out her subjects’ features. With lush reds, warm oranges, and velvety blues drawing the viewer into the frame, she elicits emotion in both her subjects and audience. “The way colors interact with …

Life lessons from a pro: Joe McNally on capturing his imagination

Joe McNally has seen it all. Known for his technical skills and vast storytelling experience from shooting for the likes of LIFE, National Geographic, and Adidas, McNally has worked in over 70 countries on both journalistic and commercial assignments. In his new book, “The Real Deal: Field Notes from the Life of a Working Photographer”, he looks back at the past 40 years of his work and the stories, skills, and observations to come out of it. We talked to McNally about his book, how he ended up where he is today, the experiences and lessons he has gained along the way, and that time he brought a cow into the kitchen. Where did the idea for the book come from? There are many photographic books in the marketplace that show you the f-stop, the shutter speed, where to put the light, where to put the camera, it’s basically a blueprint for producing X type of result. This book is not that. The motivation for the book stems from being a photographer for a very …