Ivan Weiss shares his journey into professional portrait photography
I tend to stay away from headshot photography. It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s more that it’s one of the oldest types of professional photography and therefore it’s very difficult for current photographers to show us something different. Then, Ivan Weiss came into my life, and I totally fell in love with his portfolio, so much so, I wanted to know more.
What struck me about Weiss’ work is that his portrait photography blends the gap between corporate and creative. Each individual frame could serve as both a Linkedin profile photograph and a headshot for an artistic resume. I also appreciate Weiss' ability to make all of his subjects, as ordinary as they may be, feel special and larger than life.
His reputation as a portrait photographer is so strong that he’s been able to create a photography business in one of the world’s most sought-after locations, London. He also supports other photographers on their journey, and with that he’s become a prominent name in the world of headshot photography.
Weiss very kindly agreed to sit down and speak to Them Frames, and in this interview he shares his influences, his approach to photographing people and how he’s managed to sustain himself in the very competitive world of professional photography.
Them Frames: Hey, Ivan, please share with us something about your life experience that you feel has influenced the photographer that you are today?
Ivan Weiss: Well, probably two things in my corporate career. Firstly, when I got to management level and I started managing people, that's when I realized that I'm a people person, something that I didn't know about myself before, and that's why I'm a portrait photographer.
Up until that point, in photography, I'd experimented with different things. Maybe landscapes, some wildlife stuff, architecture and still life, all of those things. But the experience of managing people, helping people to develop and creating conditions in which others can bring out or express the best of themselves is the thing that I've carried through into my photography.
I guess the other thing is the many years that I spent living in France, also in Italy. And I think without necessarily trying to do Renaissance art, it had a big influence on my style.
Them Frames: How do you ensure your subjects feel relaxed and become their true self, even with all the lights and lenses directed toward them?
Ivan Weiss: So, the thing about being relaxed, is it's often said that the photographer has to get the subject to relax, and I don't think that's necessarily true. I think you have to establish trust. The picture that you're trying to make is not necessarily a picture of a relaxed person. If the picture is about some anxiety or something that the person has, then being relaxed is not really what you want. What you need is for them to have that trust in you that they can express themselves, and the way that you do that is to be human with them. Basically, we are programmed to mirror the people that are around us.
So, if I am being open and maybe a bit vulnerable, sharing something about myself with the subject, then they're going to share something about themselves with me. It’s the sharing of trust that opens up the possibility for them to then express whatever it is that they're feeling in front of the camera.
I mean, I do put a lot of effort into taking their mind off the camera. There's constant communication between us. I don't think it is possible really to take their mind off the lights. I mean, the lights are on and they're bright and they're pointing at them. So, there's that onstage kind of feeling, you know?
Them Frames: What would you say is the best way to get the best shots of someone who just won't let their guard down while having their portrait made?
Ivan Weiss: With some people there's more resistance and I think as portrait photographers, nothing is off limits for us. Any technique is fair game as long as you stay within the bounds of respecting the subject. So, as long as it's done, I guess playfully, then it's fair game to trick them, and you can do this with all kinds of techniques.
For example, asking them a completely unexpected question will usually throw people off their guard, and then you can quickly follow up with a more expected, but more interesting and easier to answer question, and you know that's where they will then maybe give away something of themselves.
Telling people something about themselves that's really obvious always seems to have a positive impact. Like if you look somebody up and down and say “you are, what, 6ft2?” and they go, “oh yeah, I am 6ft2, how did you know?” [I think to myself] well, you're standing right in front of me, I can see you. Just that sort of reinforcement that I'm paying attention to my subject usually seems to do the trick.
I guess if there's absolutely no way to get through to the person, if I've tried everything, then we resort to faking. I will directly tell them to pose in a certain way, move their eyebrows, hold their mouth in a certain position. You can also, I don’t know what it's called in psychology, but that thing of, if you smile in the mirror, then you start to feel happy just because you can see yourself smiling and you can also feel yourself smiling. As I say, I think it's all fair game.
Them Frames: You’re based in London, a notoriously competitive city. Can you give us some insight as to what it's been like building your brand from the ground up to where you are now?
Ivan Weiss: I mean, it's competitive in that there's a lot of photographers, but there's also a lot of people who want their picture taken. I think it would be a different experience if I was in a tiny village somewhere, but I would also probably be the only photographer so, anyone who wanted a picture taken would have to come to me.
I don't really think it makes a difference where you are, as long as you've got access to 200 people a year you can make a business as a portrait photographer. I mean that's a slightly invented number, but I think that's a good place to start, and I think most people will have access to that number of people.
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For me, I think being in London made it easier as I knew from the start that it was possible, because I could see other people around me who were doing it for a living and making a living from portrait photography, which reassured me that there was demand for that kind of thing in this kind of place.
It also gave me access to other photographers and I could see what others were doing and gain a frame of reference, whereas if you are in a less competitive place with fewer photographers, you're, perhaps, not going to gain as much insight as to how to go about building your business.
I don't think it would matter really where you are as long you're not the only person on a desert island, then there's a way to build a business as a portrait photographer.
Them Frames: We're not hung up on gear here, that said, the lens is such an integral part of portraiture. If you could only choose one lens to work with for the rest of your career, which would it be and why?
Ivan Weiss: It would be my Canon 50mm f1.2. I think the 50mm focal length is my favorite, it's so adaptable. It's the standard lens, and it's a natural perspective. You can get in close without it getting too crazy with the perspective distortion but you can also push it to kind of exaggerate features if you want.
By standing back a little further, you get a nice natural perspective on things. Plus with today’s high-megapixel cameras, if you need something that's shot from a bit further away, you can crop in without sacrificing much in terms of quality.
So, the 50mm lens would be the one that I would keep to use for the rest of my life, and I particularly like a fast lens because I love a shallow depth of field. So, the f1.2 [works for me] There are f0.95 lenses around which I wouldn't say no to, but I like auto focus. I like the lens to talk to the camera, and work well. I'm not really a manual focus kind of person.
Them Frames: You’re a mentor at the Headshot Crew, please, can you tell us a bit more about the organization and your involvement?
Ivan Weiss: Sure. So, the Headshot Crew was started by Peter Hurley. He started it so he could find photographers that could create images at the same standard as him. That way he could branch out his business and take on more corporate clients.
He's based in New York, so starting the Headshot Crew meant he could offer clients the exact same service in Los Angeles that they get in New York, without him having to travel across the country to do the shoot.
He started coaching photographers and basically codifying his system for how he works so that he could teach it, and that then became a more general coaching platform. He still teaches to his standards and there is still that fundamental idea in place.
I'm trained to shoot to Peter's standards and every once in a while I get a client through him that has an office in London and I replicate his style here. But it's much, much, more than that now.
Basically, it's a community of headshot and portrait photographers, it's international, and within that, I've got a little corner that we call ‘the portrait track’ where I encourage people to do everything else other than shooting to Peter's style and Peter's standards.
Essentially we are using the same techniques, the same language, the same attention to detail, but using it in different ways so that people can express their own individual creativity and their own artistry.
Some people, myself included, use that as a way to develop their art as photographers, that's an integral part of their business and it caters to people of all levels. It's not really typical of photography communities in that it's very supportive. You don't get any of that nasty competitiveness that I think we've all encountered on other photography forums. I would recommend it.
Them Frames: You spend your time photographing others, but how do you feel when you are in front of the camera?
Ivan Weiss: Well, no big surprise here, I'm quite typical of portrait photographers in that I definitely prefer being the one taking the picture to being in the picture. My dad was a photographer, so I had lots of pictures taken of me when I was a kid and throughout my life.
So, I don't have a terribly uneasy relationship with it. But since becoming a more dedicated portrait photographer myself, I recognize my behavior in front of the camera is not truly authentic.
Basically, I've got a face and an expression that I do when a camera is pointed at me, so I look the same in every photo. Also, I'm super sensitive, I know when a camera's being pointed at me, I know it out of my peripheral vision quite quickly.
Interestingly, this is actually quite useful when I'm coaching other photographers because if I'm coaching somebody, they'll often be taking pictures of me and I'm able to give them a good picture or make it difficult for them to coax out of me a decent expression. I've done a lot of self-portraits, that's really difficult because you've got no kind of stimulus to respond to. But yeah, based on my sample of humanity that I've photographed, I would say I'm somewhere around the 60% mark.
I'm comfortable enough on camera, I can cooperate with a photographer, I can cooperate to get a decent picture, but I don't go out of my way to be photographed unless it's part of a teaching exercise. Then again, like I say I'm not being authentic, it's not a picture of me that we are creating, it’s a teaching exercise for the person who's taken the picture.
Them Frames: In no more than a couple of sentences, what is a good portrait session?
Ivan Weiss: For me, every portrait session is a good portrait session. I have this rule for myself when I get up in the morning, if I'm shooting today, I want to make one picture that I'm proud of, and that's it, everything else is a bonus, as long as there's one picture, then it's a success.
Them Frames: If you could select one song or musician that you feel compliments the photos you make, who would it be?
Ivan Weiss: Ooh, that's a tough one. There are definitely musicians I'd love to photograph. I'm not sure if that's because I admire them as musicians or if they've got interesting faces.
One that I keep coming back to is, I forget his last name now, Neil, from Divine Comedy. Yeah, there's something about him that I find interesting. I'm a big fan of his music and I think a lot of his stuff plays well for me while I'm shooting or editing. I'd love to photograph Dave Growl as well. I'd really like to photograph Leanne Havas, Keith Richards, I mean the list is endless.
Them Frames: Finally, please finish this sentence. I need photography in my life because…
Ivan Weiss: It's my self-expression. Portrait photography, in particular, is a means to express things that, perhaps, it would be healthier if I expressed them in other ways. I don't know, but it works, it’s sufficient. It's a way for me to share my opinions or my view on things or feelings in a way that is less daunting for me than, maybe just saying stuff.
That's why I need photography. Both as a photographer and as a consumer, I think it's probably the same thing, like seeing photographs that reflect back to me, something that I feel or think for whatever reason. Seeing something in a visual form that chimes is a satisfaction.
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