Background

I researched Niall McDiarmid after he was suggested to me by my tutor after Assignment 2.  

In my Assignment 2 Reflection, I had made a bit of a throw away remark that I had chosen black and white presentation of my images because I wanted to position my images in the street photography domain, I discussed the merits of this with my tutor and we agreed that this is not necessarily the case.  My instant reaction when viewing McDiarmid’s home page (McDiarmid, 2020) is how a deeper consideration is needed on a choice such as that.  Fig.1 below is a screen shot of his page and the most striking point of the page before studying the images is the colour. 

The images themselves (focussing only on those with people in them) are portraits of people that McDiarmid has simply met in the street as he has visited different towns across the UK. They are street scenes in the sense that they are taken where McDiarmid has met them, but they are posed for the capture of the image itself.  McDiarmid describes his method in a discussion with Daniel Meadows (Meadows and Carroll, 2018); typically talking to the subject for a few minutes and then capturing two or three frames per person.

The number of frames is interesting, this is not many and leaves no chance to recover if the shots have not worked.  McDiarmid also describes his approach to lighting which is to aim for soft lighting with no shadows, he does not use a flash (ibid.).

One comment from the same video caught my attention as he was describing his process of visiting random towns “I didn’t have to please anybody apart from myself”.  I found this interesting as I have noticed that when I am capturing shots for assignments, I have found myself thinking more about how they might fare in assessment rather than whether or not they are images that I would like to capture.  I think that this is an important point to reflect on, capture images for myself, not what I think an assessor might think.

Images

It is obvious that McDiarmid chooses his subjects for their own interest but also through their relationship to the environment in which they stand, with a particular focus on colour.  Figure 2 is a perfect example of this technique, the colour of the person’s outfit and the door in which they stand an obvious parallel but then the details of the person holding the viewers eye, for example the cap, the untied shoelace, the chains etc.

In a video discussion (Meadows and Carroll, 2018), McDiarmid discusses the concept of ‘portraiture’ and says that he finds it a difficult concept to define.  Images such as Fig. 2 are what many would consider a portrait but then the image in Fig. 3 also caught my attention.

The image shows only the lower legs of a person in their wellington boots standing on a train platform as a train goes by.  Graphically, the lines on the back of the wellingtons have a certain parallel with the yellow line on the platform and of the lines on the train itself; both the lines in their own right but also the colours.  But then there is the consideration of the passenger herself.  What do we know of her? Is it actually a she?  What are they doing there?

I think that I might have dismissed this as a portrait in recent years, but I think although we don’t know who the person actually is, the questions one asks plus I get a feeling of a metaphor with life rushing past the person whilst they stand waiting for their time, means that this could be considered a portrait of sorts.

In Figure 4, McDiarmid goes further still, there is no person in the image at all.  

This images is apparently taken in a café and shows what looks like a cup of tea sitting on a table.  The chairs at the table are empty.  The image is taken from the series “Southwestern” which McDiarmid took over a period of 10 years walking around South West London (McDiarmid, n.d.).  Is it a portrait?  I think it could be, there is something quintessential about this image that certainly could be anywhere in England and one is left wondering about who the absent drinker of the cup of tea might be.  Graphically, I feel that the repetition of reds and browns throughout the image also caught McDiarmid’s eye and he has placed the only bright yellow object in the scene central to the image, itself presented in square format.

Relfection

I pick up on the following points:

• The term portrait does not have to mean the classically posed portrait that one might first think of.  Rather one might think of what is the key message that the photographer is trying to convey, or what questions do want to provoke?
• Very successful images can sit in the street ‘genere’ and be in colour.  In fact in McDiarmid’s case, the colours are enhancing the images.
• It is possible to blend approaches, here the is a fusion between street setting and formal portraiture.

Bibliography

McDiarmid, N. (2020). Niall McDiarmid Photographer. [online] Niallmcdiarmid.com. Available at: https://www.niallmcdiarmid.com [Accessed 1 Mar. 2020].

Meadows, D. and Carroll, B. (2018). Encounters with strangers: The photography of Niall McDiarmid. Available at: https://youtu.be/PBWBTTtXtIg [Accessed 1 Mar. 2020].

McDiarmid, N. (n.d.). Southwestern – Niall McDiarmid. [online] Niallmcdiarmid.com. Available at: http://www.niallmcdiarmid.com/books/southwestern [Accessed 1 Mar. 2020].

Figures

Figure 1. McDiarmid, N. (2020). Niall McDiarmid Photographer.  At: https://www.niallmcdiarmid.com [Accessed 1 Mar. 2020].

Figure 2. McDiarmid, N. (2018). Missy, Marketplace, Blackheath, Rowley Regis. [image] Available at: https://www.niallmcdiarmid.com/work/5 [Accessed 1 Mar. 2020].

Figure 3. Diarmid, N. (2017). Clapham Junction, South London. [image] Available at: https://www.niallmcdiarmid.com/work/3 [Accessed 1 Mar. 2020].

Figure 4. McDiarmid, N. (2019). Lambeth. [image] Available at: https://www.niallmcdiarmid.com/work/22 [Accessed 1 Mar. 2020].