Ep 008: Miranda Barnes
A SHOT: So to start, can you describe the photo that we’re going to talk about?
MIRANDA BARNES: It’s a couple against a fence. Yeah, it’s one of those street portraits that I really enjoy. I took it in 2018 in Sunset Park [Brooklyn].
Why were you there that day?
It was one of those really nice days. I remember it being my block party’s annual get-together for the summer, and yeah, I was just out that day. I deliberately walked 15 minutes. I went into the park and found this couple. It was a pair [of couples], two of them — Tiffany and Gio — and then I don’t remember the other couple’s names. I had seen them coming out of the pool, kind of walking down the park because Sunset Park is at this elevated level. And I just remember trailing them and looking at their speed and just seeing how in love they were. I walked past them in a hurry because I was like, “Ah, I shouldn’t ask them for a photo,” but I contemplated the sort of like, “You should ask,” “No, you shouldn’t.” I was very shy and still somewhat am when it comes to street portraits. But I walked out of the way and stopped and was like, “Miranda, go back and try to take that photo.” And I went back. I went back into the park. I couldn’t find them and was like, “Aw, damn, alright.” And then I looked to my left, and I saw them on the basketball courts. So I just went up to them. I was just like, “I’m a photographer.” They were just like, “You’re a professional photographer.” And I was just like, “Yeah,” and they were like, “Great, we need photos actually.” So it was kind of serendipitous in just how open they were to just having a… Yeah, I shot a full roll of them and the other couple.
What did you notice about them? You said that you had seen that they were in love or showing signs of affection to each other. What did you see from them specifically?
Tiffany and Gio definitely just had their arms wrapped against each other, and she was leaning into him. They were all laughing and talking. It was just a perfect sort of summer, end of the season, have to go back to school next week.... That was the vibe it was giving, so I was just really enjoying it.
You said you were out but then went on a walk about 15 minutes. Was the intention of that to take pictures?
It definitely was. At the time, I was post-grad, and it was just the importance of me shooting personal work, making images in the community that I was invested in and volunteered in and did workshops in, and I think that’s one of the reasons why there are these moments for me about just going around New York with my camera, with the intention of, yeah, making pictures.
So what’s your setup for when you’re taking a photo like this?
I think it depends. I was brave for a very long time of just carrying my Hasselblad around, which is what I shot Tiffany and Gio on. But normally it’s just sort of carrying a camera that feels light to me because I’m a small person. But I definitely have my days where I just have my Leica, but I find that gains more attention with people stopping, just curious as to why I have a Leica. But I also think that with the Hasselblad, maybe perhaps one of the reasons I was able to get that intimate portrait of Tiffany and Gio was because of what it represented, this very old-school camera and me being very close in age with them as well, you know, going up to them and being like, “Can I take your photo?” Man, that’s one of the biggest things I’ve missed all year is doing that, just walking with a camera with the intention of being able to talk with people, without the mask of course.
So how do you approach someone. You mentioned that you kind of had to work through nerves on going up to them, but what’s your approach?
I just have to stick true to what I always tell people, which is like, “The worst thing that someone can tell you is no.” If someone says no, it’s like, “Okay, no.” But the best thing that could happen is you get a photo. So I try to remind myself of not only this situation, this photograph, but yeah, what it means to actually follow your gut and be like, “This is gonna be a good photograph. Don’t chicken out on it.”
Is how they regard you important in any way?
I would hope that, yeah, they regard me as someone who is well intentioned and the responsibility that comes with taking an image and how I then carry on with it. So I definitely think about that.
Do you make an effort to get to know them in any way?
Oh, totally. Sometimes, though, I have people who are like, “Eh, don’t worry about giving me the photo,” but I definitely take information down and send it to them. Yeah, I definitely sent it to them.
So how quickly do you take this photo?
I work pretty quick. But I also knew that I really liked this photo. I really liked this setup. What I saw in them in that moment, I really wanted to document it, so you just shoot 12 shots. I definitely took my time, and even thinking about it now, a full roll of film is not cheap. So it’s also thinking about just the sort of financial costs of what that meant at that time for me too, post-grad, not working in any capacity the way I am now.
What intention did you have with maybe how the light was hitting them in this shot?
When I had found them, they were on the basketball courts and the lighting was going really, really fast. I probably had five to seven minutes left of sunlight, maybe if that. So I was like, “Let’s just go to where it’s sunny around this corner.” So just, yeah, used what was provided. But that lighting, it’s all just the sun directed on them.
How about direction for how they should be engaged with either each other or how they should be standing?
I think I gave them some directions in the sense of just like, “Okay, well, lean against the fence but normally what you would do with each other.” That’s kind of what I said. I was just like, “You guys looked so loving and embraced walking down that hill.” Then there was the other couple. There’s five of us, so there is conversation going on, which I think helped. It wasn’t just the three of us isolated. We were in a park. Naturally I just let them start to talk back and forth, and then I sort of caught the movements and said, “Okay, wait, hold that one more second.”
Where do you think in this photo we can see that you took your time with them?
I like their eyes. And that is something that I just knew off the bat and makes it for me. I’ve always loved the fact that he’s had on American-flag shorts, just because I like to have a little underlining tone. I mean, that was also another reason. I’m not saying that if he had on black shorts I wouldn’t have taken the photograph, but it was also a very key note in me…
What’s that underlying tone?
I mean, you know. Not even so much of an underlining tone. Let me pull back on that. Just more of the subtle, a young Dominican couple in Brooklyn photographed by me, a black woman.
So when you go on that walk with your camera, what are you looking for?
That’s the thing. I don’t really look for anything. I don’t get mad at myself for not getting a shot. That used to be the thing where I’d go out and not get anything and get bummed. I think that I really worked on just allowing myself to, yeah, when I have a bad day with photography, I can just sort of be like, “That’s a bad day.” It’s just not always going to be this easy walk in the park. And I think about days like that where it’s like, yeah, I made maybe three or four portraits that day, night, afternoon, walking around Sunset Park, Park Slope — yeah, stuff that are in my portfolio — but then I’ve also gone out on days or weeks and not gotten anything. It’s just such a fickle thing.
If you go out and you made four pictures of someone or took four portraits, what are you looking for that made you want to take those pictures?
How they’re interacting with someone, how they look, their whole personality…
Is there a lot of observation on your part then?
Oh, yeah, definitely. And I also love, yeah, the days where I don’t have my camera and I’m just observing, also drawing inspiration that way too, like, “Oh, okay, wow. I really liked what that woman was wearing or what that man was doing.” I can make a mental note of recreating or staging something for that later.
What do you hope to create with an image like this?
I mean, just documentation of a space. To be frank, Sunset Park has changed. I was also very shocked to just see a lot of black and brown kids coming out of the pool still. So in that regard, me seeing them is also just like this idea of “Whoa, Sunset Park is not completely gentrified yet.”
Do you think this photo tells a story?
Her shirt is wet, which is also what I really like about this shot because it just seems very in the moment, like they literally got out of the pool to go home. The towel is still wrapped around his neck. I just think that they look very, very comfortable and direct with me. I really like that about it. They’re not goo goo ga ga. They’re giving intimacy without having this smoldering affection happening in the image.
They’re each holding their own space in the photo.
Definitely.
How important do you think the hands are to this photo?
The hands are giving what I hope to capture. I like how relaxed his hand looks. It’s not tense. And then I love how, yeah, hers is just kind of wrapped around the wire.
When you look at this photo, what mood does it give off?
I would say still that endless summer night. Like, I love this photo so much just because it reminds me of those long summer nights where it’s just a perfect night. And I find that you just don’t get a lot of those in New York. It’s always hot, or it’s always cold. I just remember that day being a perfect summer day in August, like “Damn, I’m lucky to be out right now here in this space with all these other people.”
How would you describe the quality of light in this photo?
It was the last five to seven minutes of sunlight. Her face is red for a reason. It’s the sun just blaring on her. But I kind of like that also, working under that pressure. “Alright, we’ve got five minutes before the sun sets. Let’s go with a random stranger.” I like those moments because you kind of meet someone who may not be a photographer but is very interested in what you’re doing and wants to help you out because they’re posing for you.
So let’s talk a little bit about the square format. What do you like about working within a square as a frame?
I just laugh about it. I really just started it because it was the lightest camera I really could hold with medium format. I had originally started with a Rolleiflex, which was my uncle’s. It was the first camera that I really was attracted to because just partially on the size. It allowed me to put it in a tote bag or backpack between school and work. So yeah, it was kind of out of pure practicality, knowing that I wanted to shoot medium format and wanted a negative in that size range or bigger, you know. I would have been crazy trying to carry around the [Mamiya] RZ67 like some of these folks out here.
Why did you want to shoot medium format specifically?
I was a Tumblr baby. I grew up on Tumblr and then taking that from Tumblr and getting more into photography, but I spent a lot of time on Tumblr and knew from a very early… I wouldn’t say early age, but early in my career because I had been into photography probably since high school. Tumblr provided me the resources for free to know the difference between a 35mm camera and a medium-format camera and 120 film. Eventually I started to see what medium format looked like, doing research, and I was like, “I wanna do that.” So I bought a Hasselblad.
Why specifically medium format though? What drew you to that?
Getting into photography in high school and then college, there was definitely a switch of me going from photographing my friends and the last year, senior year of high school to wanting to actually do bodies of work and projects. In my head I was like, I want a medium-format camera to do that. I also, like I said, find it as an icebreaker. I find that I’m rolling up to people with this old-looking camera and it’s me giving them a smile, pre-Covid, “Can I take your photo?” I also think that sort of helps the approach. I’ve also had people just come up to me or see the camera and just be like, “Take a photo of me,” and I’m like, “Okay,” like very willing to do that.
So many non-professional photographers now are are familiar with the square format just because of Instagram. As a photographer who regularly works in that ratio, what are the things you find yourself thinking about when composing images for a square?
How someone’s head looks. I’m short, so it depends on the angle that I’m at. But when I’m photographing someone’s head, it can definitely look enlarged if I’m not too careful, coming at an angle that just is not flattering. I find that having the prism really helps me. I’m not looking at anything else. I’m just looking down at this thing and can take my time with my full hand focusing. Sorry, I’m making the movements, and no one’s looking.
Sometimes when I’m using gear that kind of requires me to be more present with my tool — you saying, like, looking down — it creates not an illusion but the image of focus on my part so the person pays attention. Do you get that ever? Just they’re seeing you do your work.
Oh, yeah. And I like to talk about what I’m doing as well and see that the person I’m photographing is sort of asking questions… I had a shoot a week ago, a week and a half ago, where I was photographing a man and his team was kinda maybe confused, but I was like, “Do you want to look inside the camera to see what I’m seeing,” and [they were] like, “Oh, wow, okay. I get what you’re doing.” I also give that space because a lot of people don’t know. I didn’t know for a long time, and I’m still learning.
I don’t know if there’s anything to this, but I find it interesting that you said you’re short and you’re choosing a camera that is gonna be even lower.
Oh, yeah. One of my friends actually a couple of years ago was like, “I know a photo of yours because everyone is just looking down.” I was just like, “Alright, well, damn, okay.” But true because I was at one point, yeah, no apple box, no prism on top of the Hasselblad, so it was just fully shooting waist level. It’s just kind of funny to think of some of the shots I do, like what it has allowed me with some photographs, because I do know that shooting from below is a thing, but I’m also now trying to get higher.
Your eye is low, you know what I mean. You’re looking at everyone, and you’re naturally composing from that perspective, so it makes sense that you’re gonna be lower than your subjects in your images.
Yeah, and I also try to play with angles. I like to, if I can, get people a little lower than me or on ground level if it means getting that eye-level shot that people are looking for.
What’s something unrelated to photography that’s been feeding you creatively lately?
I love reselling clothing on Depop. It’s my thing. I’m an avid thrifter in general. Yeah, you’re in New York. You’re in one of the greatest cities to do that. With everything of course happening, I had to find some other resources, so Depop it is. I really like it. I’ve made a couple of hunnids off of it.
Links:
Miranda Barnes
Aperture: “11 Photographers Reflect on Images of Solidarity”
Hasselblad 500 Series
Hasselblad PME Prism
35mm and 120 Medium Format Film Comparison