Ryan Brenizer -- NYC Wedding Photographer. Problem solver, storyteller. » documentary/photojournalism

On Documentary Photography and Breakthroughs

Ryan Brenizer — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:48:12 +0000

I took a photo I liked yesterday.

As I mentioned earlier, I went back to school this week, re-taking a version of a documentary photography course that I took more than five years ago. I did it even though it pushed this week’s workload from “busier than it should be for an off-season” to “absolutely insane” because I wanted to try to deepen and broaden my work, and connecting with a fantastic teacher and the sort of psychopathically devoted photographers who attend classes at the International Center of Photography is a great way to do that.

When you spend all of your time as a craftsman, honing and shaping exactly how you see the world, it can be excruciatingly hard to break your habits. On the job, if it’s possible to turn out 1,000 amazing images in a single day, then that’s what I want to do. To that end, I have sort of a Schroedinger’s Cat attitude — frantic and placid at the exact same time. I want to calm my subjects so much that they completely get over the fact that they’re being photographed, but I never, ever stop moving, stop looking, stop rocking and swaying and stepping back and forth. If someone stops me to talk, I’m likely looking through them or over their shoulder to make sure I never missed anything.

Whereas yesterday, with a documentary photographer hat on, probably the most important thing I did was to put my camera down and just talk to people for hours. I had to make some slight changes in how I composed a photo, but I had to make gigantic changes in myself. I wasn’t sure if I’d break through the crusty walls of a craftsman in just five days, but I did.

Starting a good documentary project is hard. Trying to do the whole thing in two days is virtually impossible, and almost doesn’t make sense. Is two days of shooting a documentary, or is it just a short magazine assignment? Amazing projects like The Ninth Floor are generally measured in months or years — so by that scale do you think Jessica Dimmock got a photo she liked for publication every day? Nope. While my normal pace has me thinking about “How good is the 500th-best photo I took today?” in documentary photography the story matters, and the subjects matter, and that’s it. Excessively beautiful photos can actually hurt the story sometimes. The deeper you’re into it, the longer these periods of just sinking in get — you can go weeks without a photo that would fit the final storyline.

It’s context. If I came back from a wedding and liked one photo from that day, I might jump out a window. When I came back from a day’s shoot yesterday and had taken a photo I liked, I was ecstatic. I’d been proud enough that I had woken up that morning with no idea what I was going to do, and by the end of the day had cut through red tape and gotten to a place few photographers would have access to. I set out to tell an uplifting story about overcoming obstacles and how we help each other along the way — and I did. But I kept myself open to surprise, and when the story deepened and the narrative became more complex I saw that, and I shot it, in what I believe to be a magazine-publishable image.

But I’ve also learned in this class that sometimes you have to keep the best images under your hat, or only allow them to be shown within the full and proper context. Because what really matters are the subjects.

Yesterday Andre mentioned a student who was really excited about getting clearance to go to Haiti after the hurricane devastated the island.

“That’s great,” he said, “why are you going?”

“Because I need these photos for my portfolio!”

If you’re gritting your teeth now, you’ll understand why I’m not showing the photo.

Back to School — Trapeze School behind the scenes

Ryan Brenizer — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:04:02 +0000

I’m good at being uncomfortable, so
I can’t stop changing all the time

I’ve gone back to school. Many years ago I took a documentary course at the International Center of Photography. It was intense. In the land of the Internet, the average critique you get is about as deep as “Nice photo!” or “This has colors!” I was still getting my photographic feet under me in a lot of ways, but my head had already swollen with the weird world of Internet photography culture. People were favoriting my photos on Flickr! Someone recognized me on the street! Clearly I was big time. So it was a shock when someone said that my photos made them physically ill, when critique got so intense and personal that I dug my fingernails into my skin. It was exactly the shock I needed, and helped make me a much better photographer than I was then.

There are a lot of things that are amazing about the Internet culture of photography, and it has helped raise the bar on the industry of wedding photography astonishingly quickly, but there are a lot of photographers out there, and especially the very good ones, who would be helped by the occasional “This is a terrible photo and I hate you for showing it to me.”

I love weddings. I love them so much. I love the craft of them and the art of them. There are so many special skills that it takes to turn out good results every time that even many great documentary photographers and photojournalists don’t have at a high level. But to do that, sometimes you need a big bag of tricks, and those generally conceal far more than they reveal. Where’s the soul, man?

So I’m back, even though my schedule is way more crazy than I thought it would be by mid-January. I should be planning my own workshops right now, not taking one that crams 10 weeks of work into five days. But I refuse to ever stop learning. I happily still take classes and workshops, and will never stop. I love it when extremely experienced wedding photographers take my workshops, because they know that it doesn’t mean that I’m better than them, whatever that means, but that we’re all different from each other and we have some things we can learn along the way.

But I particularly recommend this course, “Passion and Personal Vision” by Andre Lambertson. I don’t use flower-child language like “beautiful soul” easily, but Lambertson has one, and you can see it in his work. I like to think I make people so comfortable I become invisible — and I’ve had brides and grooms say “Where’s Ryan?” when I was three feet in front of them — but we’re talking about a guy so invisible and who inspires such trust that he has photos of kids helping their mothers shoot heroin. His images have soul and patience, and he pushes past discomfort. And I know I have learning left to do on that front.

So yeah, I’m back in school. It’s nuts, and so are the other students. Picture being given two assignments — document a local business and get a stranger to let them into their house and photograph them — at 10 p.m. They’re due by 6 p.m. the next day. I gave the last assignment to one of my workshops and gave them weeks to do it, and maybe a quarter of them did. In those few hours, 85 percent of my class did it. That’s the sort of dedication you only get in art school.

First, my business assignment. I went to Trapeze School New York because it has an interesting story and I was seeking discomfort. TSNY is a second home for a lot of its students, and in a some way a first home for more than a few. They say the way to understand the character of Batman is that Batman is the real person and Bruce Wayne is the costume. And for a lot of flyers and aerialists, that’s exactly how it works. They are circus freaks, they just happen to wear the clothes of a lawyer most of the time. This is a place where a man can practice a strip tease act (the tricks, not the stripping), while 11-year-olds have a birthday party. Where a woman will climb up and wrap herself in silk 15 feet in the air — and just sit there and think for 15 minutes. A lot of the real story of TSNY is in the pauses in-between. It was something I could only begin to tell in my short time there, coming in cold with no prior permission, introducing myself and shooting.

I started with just my Fuji X100 on totally silent mode, trying not to interrupt the scene, to get people used to me, but I soon wanted more ways to tell the story. I felt myself get closer and closer to where I wanted to go, and I wonder what I could do if I had weeks to tell these stories, instead of minutes.

I don’t. Not yet. But I can already feel that yearning to shoot, to tell stories that are deeper and more comprehensive than the ones I’ve told before, even on wedding days. To answer the question “What’s behind that door? What’s behind those eyes? Who are these people?”

Exactly what I need.

My Favorite Portrait (That Isn’t a Portrait)

Ryan Brenizer — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 18:29:01 +0000

Stephanie and Kevin’s wedding on Saturday was spectacular, whimsical and fun — and it was so sweet to see someone I had last known as a little girl in Sunday school grown up into a gorgeous bride. At the end of the night, everyone gathered out for the release of some very cool Thai lanterns into the sky, and as they floated away Stephanie excitedly turned into Kevin just like so.

This was total darkness. ISO 4500, f/1.4, 0.4 second shutter speed. I laid down in the grass to get a shot that couldn’t be made out by human eyes, and I figured they must have seen me, and had perfectly posed for it just like so. I went up to Kevin after and said “Did you know I was there? That pose was perfect!” He said “No … what do you mean?” I showed him the photo on the back of my camera and he started to cry … and I got halfway there myself.

“I’m gonna have to see your ID…”

Ryan Brenizer — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:36:48 +0000

If I’ve learned anything from reactions to MomentJunkie submissions, it’s that the world likes children with alcohol. Out-adorable this.
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Lens: Nikon 135mm f/2D DC
Camera: Nikon D3

Reception, In and Out

Ryan Brenizer — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 14:51:05 +0000

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Lens: 35mm f/1.4
Camera: Nikon D3s

No … wait!

Ryan Brenizer — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 14:00:00 +0000

One of my reasons for launching Moment Junkie was to affect the conversation of wedding publishing — that pictures other than stylish portraits and showcasing centerpieces were important enough to publish, since they are the heart of a wedding. I’ve had a number of photographers say “shooting for Moment Junkie” has changed their priorities, and I happily agree.

In this moment, the grandfather almost drinks out of the kiddush cup before it’s time, but the rabbi makes a timely intervention.
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Lens: Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II
Camera: Nikon D3s

A family moment

Ryan Brenizer — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:00:00 +0000

From Saturday’s wedding at the Chelsea Piers Lighthouse.
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Lens: 35mm f/1.4
Camera: Nikon D3s

Ready to Go

Ryan Brenizer — Tue, 03 May 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Sheesh, 30,000+ hits yesterday. Now back to your regularly scheduled weddings (but some Very Awesome Things are happening this week, which I can share soon).
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Lens: 24-70mm f/2.8
Camera: Nikon D3

Osama is Dead; Photos from a historic party at Ground Zero

Ryan Brenizer — Mon, 02 May 2011 06:11:07 +0000

On a gorgeous September day almost ten years ago, I had just started my morning as the editor-in-chief of an upstate newspaper when one of my reporters told me a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Five minutes later, he told me about the second one, and I knew everything was about to change. Every impulse in me in a reporter told me to drive the 300 miles and be in the thick of it, but I had to manage everything, including an afternoon edition, so I sent out someone else.

Now, I finally strapped on a camera and headed for Ground Zero, but I was met with a site of raucous celebration, not despair. Osama is dead; we even have the body so there won’t be Osama sighting for the next 50 years, and New Yorkers were in the mood to celebrate. Given that it was 1 a.m., most of the ones really ready to celebrate in public were the college kids who were ready to go anyway, which ensured the atmosphere would be of revelry, not contemplation, though we were among the graves of Osama victims.

But if any city is ready for an impromptu rally at 1 a.m., it’s this one. And I’m glad to call it my home.

UPDATE: I wasn’t there to do video, but here’s a quick one I took to just get a sense of the crowd. Also, my friends at B&H Photo asked how I did this technically, given that it was 1 a.m. under low and very tricky lighting. Images have very little editing as befits photojournalism, but I knew I’d have to capture action in near-darkness, so I brought my “night vision” set-up: Two Nikon D3s‘s with the Nikon 24mm f/1.4, 35mm f/1.4, and Sigma 85mm f/1.4. Under sodium-vapor streetlights, white balance gets truly wacky, so I used Nikon Capture NX2 to process, as it has the best white balance control of any program I’ve used.

Otherwise, the main skills were things I learned in years as a newspaper photographer, such as how to politely elbow your way through a surging crowd and get where the action is.

Students, including a girl on her 21st birthday, use street poles to show their patriotism.

Revelers spray champagne onto the crowds below

After spraying the crowd, he enjoys some of the champagne for himself

Who knew New Yorkers had so many spare flags?

And the crowd goes wild for the cameras

A woman walks past a one-man candlelight vigil

Nothing says pride like face paint

The crowd chants for peace

Marching past the 9/11 memorial

Scaling Mount Patriotism…

“Lady, do NOT go up there! You are wearing a DRESS!”

City worker takes it in…

Moments like these are more important than car hoods

The only time I have ever seen a New Yorker happy to be stuck in traffic.

The sign of the night…

Let your colonial flag fly…

Tossed toilet paper hangs above as the crowd surges

Texting in the USA…

I can’t get enough of these guys.

Carried above the crowd

Vigilant.

UPDATE: There’s a lot going on in the comments, some of it I find quite distasteful. Here’s my view as someone who was there, in it if not of it:

I would prefer Osama have come quietly, but, he didn’t. I don’t really trust these events to be related truthfully given the value of propaganda, but the whole “firing back and using a wife as a human shield” thing, if true, makes me pretty comfortable with their decision to fire back.

One thing I was VERY proud of. Nowhere in all of the NYC revelry that I saw in person or on the news was there the scarcest bit of anti-Muslim sentiment. A guy with an “I’m a Muslim, don’t panic” t-shirt was cheered everywhere he went. No one denigrated or desecrated Islam except for OBL himself. (Online and in some other parts of the country, yes, but that’s not what these celebrations were about)

What’s hard to understand if you weren’t there is that there’s a very simple reason for the atmosphere … it was 1 a.m. These were 90 percent college kids who decided to hook a left instead of heading to the bars. No hatred, no burning people in effigy, just good news meaning an excuse to hang from a light pole on a day where the cops would cheer you on for doing so. Does it really make sense to set a car on fire because your team won a basketball game? Sure, if you listen to your id.

I didn’t think it was the tone I would have wanted, but the more I see people give high-handed criticism of a bunch of people gathering in the streets just to sing songs and share a sense of glad togetherness, the more protective I feel.

I mean, dude. I saw a hippie go up to a military offer and say “Do you mind if I just … give you a hug?” And they hugged. I saw police officers laughing gleefully at people committing (victimless) crimes, yelling “just don’t get hurt!” And 400 people cheering on a Muslim guy waving an American flag I saw New Yorkers not caring about a traffic jam. No hatred, but a sense that we did something right, something we said we’d do, and brought him to justice. (And if the raid went down the way they said, it seemed to have been handled justly).

The atmosphere was joyous and inclusive. When someone shouted “Hooray for the troops!” everyone cheered, then chanted “Bring them home!” The chant merged into “End the wars!” and someone responded with their own chant: “Don’t get greedy!” Everyone laughed. This is how it felt. While the wars aren’t funny, while death isn’t funny, and while the people here took their convictions seriously, even when they opposed each others’, you laugh when anything happens that relaxes your tension just a little bit. You put 1,000 people together who are happy about anything, and it becomes a party.

Do you think none of the celebrations would have happened if he’d come along quietly? If the announcement was “We’ve got him!”

I think there would be countless debates later about what to do with the guy, but I think there would have been just as many people in the streets, and if so, then they weren’t really there cheering for death, and sanctimoniousness must be tempered.

We did the conga when Hitler died, but we also went out into Times Square and kissed nurses when Hirohito … didn’t die.

Personally, I am cheering one of the most successful, precise military actions in history. It would have been easy, but terrible and a disaster, to just send in a Predator and destroy the place. We finally made a series of right, difficult decisions after a series of incredibly competent intelligence gathering. I mean … incredible effective government decisions? Incredibly competent intelligence agencies? And it all worked together to absolutely minimize any impact on civilians? That’s a stopped clock worth cheering.

In short, Americans aren’t particularly obsessed with death — we’re absolutely obsessed with WINNING. And in asymmetric warfare, the events of May 1, whether he had come quietly or not, is as close to a win as we can possibly come.

The Lonely Balloon

Ryan Brenizer — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 15:20:46 +0000

Many of you feel bad for this balloon. That is because you crazy! It has no feelings! And it means that Lisa and Joe’s amazing wedding is coming soon!
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Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: Sigma 85mm f/1.4

Through a Sea of Bubbles

Ryan Brenizer — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:00:10 +0000

Man, I’m glad I went in the wayback machine to feature this wedding on MomentJunkie.com — I had completely forgotten about this picture, and I dig it. You never know when you’ll come back to one day’s b-list and see it in a new light.

People who know my portfolio will probably recognize the shot I took immediately after this.
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Lens: 24-70mm f/2.8
Camera: Nikon D3

Their First Rodeo

Ryan Brenizer — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 16:00:00 +0000

The flower girls scramble between adults in the rush to prepare for Gianna and Sebastian’s wedding.
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Lens: Sigma 85mm f/1.4
Camera: Nikon D3s

The Moment of Shock

Ryan Brenizer — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:00:00 +0000

It’s safe by now to reveal the couple in this photo. I love when I get hired to photograph the moment of a proposal. It’s fraught with such incredible emotion … and I get to use my best ninja skills. Here, the set-up was an incredibly romantic dinner date at the Metopolitain Museum of Art, with a classical quartet in on the act. As the groom-to-be set up, I pretended to be a tourist very interested in photographing nearby art pieces, until it was time to whip my lens toward the action. And they were so engrossed in the moment and their love for each other that even as I gave up pretense and shot from every angle, they didn’t so much as glance at me for almost 30 minutes.

Shock, and then joy — probably the best series of emotions one could hope for when they get down on one knee. And I don’t blame her … it was a heck of a ring.
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Lens: Sigma 85mm f/1.4
Camera: Nikon D3s

Swimming with the Fishes

Ryan Brenizer — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:00:13 +0000

Please allow me a moment of tourist photography here. Wendy and I went down to Atlanta for about 36 hours in a quick “before the insanity comes” getaway. While the goal of finding some warmer weather utterly fell to 35-degree mornings, we did have an amazing time swimming in this very tank, including whale sharks, the largest fish in the world. There also was a Hammerhead in the tank that came awfully close, but we were promised it wouldn’t eat us … much.
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Lens: 35mm f/1.4
Camera: Nikon D3s

Not the TIE!

Ryan Brenizer — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 16:00:00 +0000

I’ve been thinking recently of great moments I’ve seen at weddings, and I keep coming back to this one. Lane was marrying Eva, a lovely Danish woman, and it is a Danish tradition that, during the reception, the guests physically restrain the groom and cut his socks in half “so no other woman will look at him.”

Lane knew about that, and was game for it. What he didn’t know was that the tradition also had them cutting his (very, very nice) tie in half.
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Lens: 24-70mm f/2.8
Camera: Nikon D3

The First Silhouette

Ryan Brenizer — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 16:16:53 +0000

Backlit shot from Gianna and Sebastian’s first dance.

Lens: Sigma 85mm f/1.4
Camera: Nikon D3s

Neither a Groomsman Nor a Beggar Be

Ryan Brenizer — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:01:17 +0000

The extra member of the wedding party checks out the spread.

MomentJunkie.com — the new site I co-founded devoted to highlighting great moments on wedding days — is really taking off fast! And all of the thought that I’ve put into that launch process has already heightened my energy and vigor in seeking out great moments for my 2011 weddings. Thanks to all the participants so far!

Lens: Sigma 85mm f/1.4
Camera: Nikon D3s

Photo of the Day: Preparing Herself

Ryan Brenizer — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 15:13:23 +0000

Coming soon: Michelle and Kunal, who love each other so much they had two weddings on the same day.

Photo of the Day: Reflected Preparations

Ryan Brenizer — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:09:17 +0000

Coming soon: Stephanie and Rob

Lens: 24mm f/1.4
Camera: Nikon D3s

Photo of the Day: Focus on the Moment

Ryan Brenizer — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 16:00:24 +0000

There is nothing with such stark a connection between the power of the moment and the lack of power of the resulting photography as someone giving a heartfelt speech at a podium. I sometimes mix it up with freelensing because it’s hard, and thus rare, and it sticks in corporate clients’ minds who haven’t seen it before. I know my buddy Sam Hurd likes to do this in the DC press pool, and gets a lot of strange stares. Sorry for any bad influence, Sam.

Lens: Nikon 85mm f/1.4D
Camera: Nikon D3s

Photo of the Day: Let’s Run Away Together

Ryan Brenizer — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:00:19 +0000

Lens: 24mm f/1.4
Camera: Nikon D3s
EXIF and GPS

No added vignetting, just the mist of a beautiful night.

Stars in Her Eyes

Ryan Brenizer — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 18:51:55 +0000

Taken with the 24mm f/1.4.

From Cai and Johnny’s wedding. I’m still getting files out to clients for the holidays, but I think I’ll hold off on full wedding blogs until I get back from Italy in the New Year. I also have a review of the Nikon 35mm f/1.4 ready to go for ’11!

Photos of the Day: Soulja Boy and Keri Hilson in Concert

Ryan Brenizer — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 13:00:16 +0000

Yesterday I was selected as the photographer for the launch of five new products in Monster’s Beats by Dre line, a series of high-end headphones (and now a high-end iPod dock) partnered with hip-hop legend Dr. Dre and a series of other celebrities, from LeBron James to Justin Bieber.

(I love photos that look totally surreal even though they’re basically out-of-camera; this was just a white balance and contrast shift)

I have a feeling that publishing unapproved candids of Dr. Dre is the kind of thing that would lead publicists to shove flaming bamboo shoots under my fingernails, so I’ll hold off on that. But I also had the run of the place for the launch concert featuring Soulja Boy and Keri Hilson.

Soulja Boy makes it rain $100 bills as his pants finally give up.

Keri Hilson, a split-second before the curtain opens.

That’s some microphone.

Photo of the Day: Cha-cha-cha-Chess Face

Ryan Brenizer — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:02:24 +0000

Keep working on that gambit, kid.

I figured some of y’all would want to see an image from the Nikon 85mm f/1.4G, so here you go. It does show one of the relative strengths over the older version, which is maintaining contrast in backlit situations.

Photo of the Day: It’s all in the Timing

Ryan Brenizer — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:52:44 +0000

Handstand on a dance floor? Awesome!

But wait … check out the velocity of that tie. That’s no handstand … it’s a backflip!

I’ve seen a lot on wedding dance floors, but that was my first backflip.