There was a program in the US that I loved to watch. A reporter would stand with his back to a map of the USA and throw a dart over his shoulder at it. He would travel to the town that the dart landed on and find a phone book for the area. He would open it up, close his eyes, and pick a name at random. Then he would contact that person and tell their story. It was fascinating to me because these were just normal people going about their own lives. Most reacted surprised and would say “but I have no story” or “but I am not interesting”. Every person this reporter contacted had a story and I remember being amazed because each story was so unique and was told with so many memories and feelings. One of the reasons I love what I do, is that it is personal. What do I mean by this? Well, in order for my clients to relax on camera, I need to get to know them and I do this by getting them talking with me. In essence, I hear their life story – in the same way that this reporter would uncover his subject’s life stories. I think everybody has a fascinating story and consider nobody to be “average”. Every single person that I photograph is a unique individual with an amazing story.
Jacob was a perfect example of this. Jacob has a fantastic story and I very much enjoyed getting to know him. He told me he had no interests/sports that he was involved in, but we found one – he loves computers and is considering an engineering career. Once I heard that, it was easy to incorporate part of his story into his portraits!
