Brooklyn-based photographer Bill Wadman has put a spin on the traditional portrait series by capturing his subjects in a makeshift corner of his apartment.
He started his unusual project as a means to stay motivated, as well as to curb his chronic procrastination.
“I’ve learned that I need to just start, to jump headlong into the water and see what I can do. So one day I decided ‘I’m going to build a wall over there and shoot portraits in it,’” he said in an interview with Fstoppers.
Rather than just using a bare wall or an existing corner, he went one step further by specially building a small studio, saying that he liked the idea of a “holistic approach” in creating a setting from scratch.
With the help of his friend Hannah, a professional set-builder who worked on the last Spider-Man movie, he constructed concrete-like walls out of plaster compound mixed with latex paint.
Once the corner was finished, he started photographing his subjects, a process he describes as “freeing” due to its small confines.
“There’s a sense that it’s such a small space that it contains the subject in a way that putting someone up against seamless paper doesn’t. It makes people more comfortable being in the corner than in a big open studio.”
Armed with only his camera and a light, the portraits Wadman shoots have an intimate and personal feel that eschew the bright, glossy look of a conventional studio shoot.
They have earned comparisons to the work of the great American photographer Irving Penn, who was known for his portraits, fashion photography and still-lifes.
While Wadman acknowledged the influence Penn had on him, he stated that he made his series different by focusing on the corner and how his subjects fit in it. Also, while the latter’s portraits featured famous people, Wadman prefers to photograph his friends and neighbors.
He credits having a consistent, on-going project with helping him stay creative, likening it to “creative cardio”, and hopes it will inspire others to experiment and try new things.
View more portraits at his blog and read the full interview here.
[via Fstoppers, images via Bill Wadman]