Lou O’ Bedlam’s Friday Feature: Anne Faith Nicholls

By Lou Noble on November 13th, 2009

This was the picture where it all changed for me. ANNE FAITH NICHOLLS CHANGED MY LIFE.

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I had been invited to the wedding by a fellow Polaroid enthusiast, Tod Brilliant, after I had found him a photographer to shoot the wedding using only Polaroids.

(I was still very green, didn’t have the confidence to put myself up for the spot, and in the end that was the smart play, as it gave me free reign over the wedding, able to shoot who and when I wanted, without any of the pressure of being the wedding photographer.)

I’d met Anne only that day, and she was damned delightful. Frankly, everyone at the wedding, all strangers to me, were awesome. It was a rare collection of excellent people; everyone more than happy to have their picture taken by a well-dressed man with a twenty-year-old camera.

Me.

I’d taken a photo of Anne earlier in the day, but had been less than satisfied with it. Best part was, she was less than satisfied, too. We both knew we could do better, but we were at a wedding, not necessarily the best spot for a wee photo shoot. I was constantly moving, mingling, kibitzing, and she was doing the same, many of the folks there friends of hers she hadn’t seen in awhile.

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But I eventually caught up with her, right as the sun was going down. She posed just so, I could feel it was perfect as I was looking through the camera. Anne has a particular awareness of the camera, as a popular visual artist herself, she understood the importance of composition, of giving something worthy of being photographed. I stepped in closer, took the shot, watched it develop, but didn’t really give it a good look. I knew it was a sweet shot, and there was a lot of party left. It wasn’t until perhaps a day later, back home, that I started giving serious attention to all the Polaroids I’d taken.

And there it was. Gorgeous lady, gorgeous light, and, most important of all, that gorgeous pose that crystallized for me what I wanted from the photos I was taking.

I’d been trying, unconsciously, to capture that kind of expression for months, but didn’t know quite what I was looking for. And there it was, Anne, lips parted, as if about to speak, or taking in a slice of air, eyes alive, face neutral. I’d been having people stare at the camera, not smiling, as was customary when someone takes a picture, but it was that lack of expression, that slight part of the lips, that made all the difference.

So tiny a detail, yet I could see it was significant, when compared to shots where someone’s mouth was closed and looking into the camera.

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It took me awhile to figure out why, and there’s several reasons. For example, it was the expression most models have, in magazines, in ads. It intimated more of a pregnant pause, perhaps. It evoked, ever so slightly, the idea that you have caught a moment in between poses, as the model was either saying something, or taking a breath, and as such gives the shot a greater degree of life about it, appears less posed, paradoxically.

After that shot, I asked that pose of all my models. But more than just figuring out a small detail to infuse my photos with, it began to show me that it was worth it to constantly examine my own work, looking for ways to improve, for ways to better get across the things I wanted from my photos.

I also learned that if I’m around Anne, I better have my camera ready.

You can find Anne’s art HERE