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| © Martin Schoeller |
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Where do you do the majority of your work? Do subjects often come to your studio or do you spend a lot of time on the road?
I prefer to photograph on location. The "Close Up" set up travels with me wherever I go. I don't even have a studio.
What photographic equipment do you use on a daily basis? Do you shoot with digital medium format cameras or do you capture images exclusively on film?
I have never taken a digital picture, except for on vacation with a snapshot camera. I still prefer film and will continue to use it until the end. Film just looks so much better in galleries and museums. I use all different cameras. For my "Close Up" series I used a Mamiya RZ67 Pro II with a 140mm lens. A lot of magazine assignments I shoot with a Fuji 6x9 and for my latest project, "Female Bodybuilders," I used my Sinar 8x10. Now that's a camera. The quality is just amazing. The prints in the show will be 72"x89" and the detail and colors are just beautiful and yet realistic. They're not over saturated, too sharp and with too much depth of field, the way digital photographs sometimes look.
I exclusively use negative film, because it has the widest range of tonality. We scan them on a drum scanner and work on them in Photoshop. The scans for the "Female Bodybuilder" series were 1.86 gigabytes per image. I don't think there will ever be a digital camera with that kind of resolution, since there is only a very small group of potential costumers in need of this kind of detail.
What difficulties do you run into on the job? Is there a lot involved in coordinating each shoot?
The preparation is often the most amount of work. To come up with an idea and to produce a shoot can be very involved and can take many days. The subject is most of the time the biggest unknown. Publicists are also a force to be reckoned with and can be quite challenging to say the least.
How many portraits have you shot over the years? Who was your favorite subject? What was that experience like?
I have probably photographed 1,000 people in my "Close Up" style so far. That's about 100 a year for the last ten years. In the beginning I set up on the street and worked with whoever was willing to cooperate.
What projects are you currently working on? What do you have planned for the future?
A series on female bodybuilders. I have a show opening at Ace Gallery in L.A. on the 5th of March. They will also be shown in Beijing during the Olympics. This fall there will be a book published as well.
What books or Websites do you recommend for photographers interested in learning about portrait photography? Are there any Websites you keep up with on a regular basis?
No, not really. I get ideas from all different experiences. Just everyday events can have inspiring moments, such as riding the subway or going to a museum. I love to see people thinking outside the box of commercial photography that surrounds us everywhere.
Read other interviews from the Behind the Lens series
• June 2008: Robert Hanashiro
• May 2008: Steve Winter
• April 2008: Preston Gannaway
• March 2008: John Moore
• January 2008: Brian Skerry
• December 2007: Jasin Boland
• November 2007: Norm Barker
• October 2007: Cameron Davidson
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