Face. Off.

February 26, 2015 by Phil Kneen Photography

“What makes a photograph of a person a portrait?” – a question I have been asked on more than three occasions… If the truth be known, I’ve never really fully understood the definition of ‘portrait photography’. Is a portrait a photograph of a person, or is it a photograph about a person? If it’s an image of a person, then is every single photograph that has a human in a portrait? I run photography workshops for beginners, one of the […]

Categories: fashion, Photography • Tags: 160nc, 6x6, 6x7, 80mm, art, black and white, camera, canada, colour, digital, Epson v700, film, film camera, film photography, fine art, france, fuji film, fuji instax 200, fuji pro 400H, fuji X-pro1, holga, I shoot film, instant film, inventive, isle of man, kodak, kodak portra 400, mamiya 645 pro tl, mamiya 7II, music, negative, nikkor 35mm 1.4, nikon D800E, Olympus mju II, Peak imaging, peel, personal project, phil kneen, portra 160, portrait, VSCO, VSCO FILM, yellowknife

Please release me…

February 23, 2015 by Phil Kneen Photography

  One of the main reasons for shooting my Spain project on film was because I wanted honest, straightforward portraits of people, shots like these can often seem unflattering and harsh to the sitter. I didn’t want to shoot digital and have the constant distraction of people asking to see the shots as soon as I’d taken them, not liking them and asking me to take another…or not take another and leave as quickly as possible! But guess what I […]

Categories: Photography, photojournalism • Tags: 6x7, 80mm, art, camera, canada, colour, film, film camera, film photography, fuji pro 400H, I shoot film, inventive, isle of man, kodak, kodak portra 400, mamiya 7II, negative, Olympus mju II, Peak imaging, personal project, phil kneen, portra 160, portrait, yellowknife

One.

January 20, 2015 by Phil Kneen Photography

“I do have a personal discipline of only taking one picture, of one thing…not two” – William Eggleston “I’ve never been able to take a picture with a digital camera, because I look at it on the back of the screen, then I try and do a better one, then a better one…then I don’t know what I’m doing” – Richard Billingham “The photographer has been a slave to the camera for a long time. Photography is not about the […]

Categories: Photography, photojournalism • Tags: 160nc, 6x6, 6x7, 80mm, art, black and white, camera, canada, colour, digital, Epson v700, film camera, film photography, fine art, fuji film, fuji instax 200, fuji pro 400H, fuji X-pro1, holga gcfn, I shoot film, inventive, isle of man, kodak portra 400, mamiya 7II, negative, Olympus mju II, Peak imaging, personal project, portrait, spain, VSCO FILM, yellowknife

Cafe Plaza Nueva

December 24, 2014 by Phil Kneen Photography

The Cafeteria Restaurante Plaza Nueva, Seron, Spain – my office for most of January 2015. I’m heading down to the southern Mediterranean to shoot a project on British Expatriates who are, for one reason or another, living full-time away from their country of origin. I’m not really interested in the people who are living there for ‘one reason’, one reason being the weather. No, I want to meet the people who are possibly hiding there for ‘another’ reason. I have […]

Categories: Photography, photojournalism • Tags: 160nc, 6x6, 6x7, 80mm, art, black and white, camera, canada, colour, digital, Epson v700, expats, film, film camera, film photography, fine art, fuji film, fuji instax 200, fuji pro 400H, hide, I shoot film, inventive, kodak, kodak portra 400, mamiya 7II, negative, nikkor 35mm 1.4, nikon D800E, Olympus mju II, Peak imaging, personal project, phil kneen, portra 160, portrait, project, seron, Simon Campbell, spain

That was, almost, 2014…

December 14, 2014 by Phil Kneen Photography

I know it’s not quite over, but I don’t think I’ll have much opportunity to post over the next few weeks, so I thought I’d do this now… Over the last year, as a rough estimate, I’ve photographed about 250 different people, some of them friends, some of them strangers who became friends. The images here are my particular favourites. I can distinctly remember the moment I pressed the shutter on every image, what we’d being talking about and even […]

Categories: Photography, photojournalism • Tags: 160nc, 6x6, 80mm, art, black and white, camera, canada, colour, digital, Epson v700, film, film camera, film photography, fine art, fuji film, fuji instax 200, fuji pro 400H, fuji X-pro1, holga, I shoot film, instant film, inventive, isle of man, kodak, kodak portra 400, mamiya 7II, negative, nikkor 35mm 1.4, nikon D800E, Olympus mju II, Peak imaging, personal project, phil kneen, portra 160, portrait, VSCO, VSCO FILM

Homme

December 10, 2014 by Phil Kneen Photography

I was going to write this article as a witty and ironic anecdote about how I live on the Isle of Man, but I hardly ever photograph men…but I’m not really in the mood. So here’s some photos I’ve taken recently of blokes…yes, that’s lazy blogging, sorry.

Categories: fashion, Photography, photojournalism • Tags: black and white, camera, colour, film camera, film photography, fuji film, fuji pro 400H, homme, I shoot film, inventive, isle of man, kodak, mamiya 7II, men, negative, nikkor 35mm 1.4, nikon D800E, Peak imaging, personal project, phil kneen, portrait, VSCO, VSCO FILM

This is who I am…

November 16, 2014 by Phil Kneen Photography

I thought it might have happened a few years ago, but it didn’t, it only came to me a few weeks ago – I finally decided what it is I am. I’m a portrait photographer. Yes, I’ve always shot portraits, however, I’ve also shot a lot of other stuff, but I don’t want to do that anymore. I just want to photograph people. I think if you’re going to be serious about anything you have to get to that point, […]

Categories: Photography • Tags: art, black and white, camera, colour, digital, Epson v700, film, film camera, film photography, fine art, fuji film, fuji pro 400H, I shoot film, inventive, isle of man, kodak, kodak portra 400, mamiya 7II, negative, nikkor 35mm 1.4, nikon D800E, Olympus mju II, Peak imaging, peel, personal project, phil kneen, portra 160, portrait

Changes

September 20, 2014 by Phil Kneen Photography

One of the things I love about portrait photography is the way people can look completely different in every photograph I take. There are so many variables that affect the final image – the sitters mood, my mood, how well we know each other, light, temperature…the list is endless. These portraits were made days apart, weeks apart, there’s a couple with a few years gap. One thing I noticed, straight away, when selecting these images is how the look of […]

Categories: Photography • Tags: 160nc, 6x7, 80mm, art, black and white, camera, colour, digital, Epson v700, film, film camera, film photography, france, fuji film, fuji instax 200, fuji pro 400H, fuji X-pro1, holga, I shoot film, instant film, inventive, irish sea, isle of man, kodak, kodak portra 400, mamiya 645 pro tl, mamiya 7II, negative, nikkor 35mm 1.4, nikon D800E, Olympus mju II, Peak imaging, peel, personal project, phil kneen, portra 160, portrait, VSCO, VSCO FILM

Over-played

September 4, 2014 by Phil Kneen Photography

Do you ever hear a song and really like it, but you like it because not many other people have heard it and it’s a bit new and different? But then that song gets really popular and you hear it everywhere you go, and then suddenly you don’t like that song anymore? Well I’m getting a bit like that with VSCO software. If you go into any VSCO group on Facebook or Flickr, every shot looks the same.  I don’t want […]

Categories: Photography • Tags: 6x6, 6x7, black and white, camera, colour, digital, Epson v700, film camera, film photography, fuji film, fuji instax 200, fuji pro 400H, holga, I shoot film, isle of man, mamiya 7II, negative, nikkor 35mm 1.4, nikon D800E, Peak imaging, personal project, phil kneen, portra 160, portrait, VSCO, VSCO FILM

Part of the process…

September 1, 2014 by Phil Kneen Photography

Contrary to fond belief, I don’t normally turn-up at photo-shoots with no idea what I’m doing, although this can sometimes appear to be the case, especially on Sunday morning shoots… Most of the images I make have been preconceived, for all projects I will sketch-out ideas, possible models, locations and props. Some of the ideas make it, some don’t. (some people don’t make it either, sorry, Porscha!) Anyone familiar with ‘The Life, Aquatic’ and an exhibition of portraits I showed […]

Categories: Photography • Tags: 6x7, 80mm, art, black and white, camera, canada, colour, Epson v700, film, film photography, fuji film, fuji instax 200, fuji pro 400H, fuji X-pro1, holga, I shoot film, Impossible Project, instant film, inventive, isle of man, kodak, kodak portra 400, mamiya 7II, negative, nikon D800E, personal project, phil kneen, polaroid, portrait