Training your Gaze.

I am reading Train your gaze by Roswell Angier.  If you are interested in photographs of people, portraiture, social documentary then I highly recommend it.  I was struck by the very first chapter titled about looking.  It mentions the work of Richard Avendon.  I have not seen his work yet but it is on my list. He used silence in his way of working.  He chose his subject, set up the photograph, lighting, camera etc and then asked them to look at the camera.  He observed them and took a series of photos in complete silence not letting the camera get in the way.  No fiddling with the focusing, no changing the lighting, no direction.  He was freed to just observe, to look.
At the end of the chapter there is an assignment based on this idea and I am going to try to shoot it today.  Basically I will set up the session in advance.  I mount the camera on a tripod and use a cable release.  Focus the lens and ask the model to look at the camera.  Then I shoot 36 shots in complete silence over an hour.  All I have to do is observe, look nothing else.
The following two quotes, for me sum up the point;
"Allow your self to stare.  You will find that minor fluctuations in expression, or small involuntary gestures, become significant events." 

This, I think points up a major social taboo that gets in the way of taking photos of people;  allowing oneself to stare is something we never do.  Funny thing is that the more I try it in the street with or without a camera the easier and more enjoyable it becomes.

"Silence is a prerequisite for fascination, that state of heightened attention in which particular effects of meaning can be produced.  First and foremost the photographer must be quiet, thereby relinquishing the responsibility to keep the subject amused with reassuring banter."

One of the hardest parts of taking a portrait is having to supply banter, to relax the subject.  That and fiddling with the camera, the lights, the tripod and so on.