50 portraits in 50 days with a 50mm lens - part 5: 41/50-50/50

Here is the fifth and final part of project 50 portraits. It took me a long time to complete this post as I have started my own business recently and that in combination with an active 11 months old leaves me with very little time!

41/50 Bella with Lise & Maela

42/50 Adam & I

43/50 Amy, sister-in-law

44/50 Katie, vintage fair

45/50 Blaise, Kurt Geiger Shop

46/50 Rose, local hero

47/50 Lee, DHI

48/50 Jacob

49/50 Joss, DJ

50/50 Betty, Photographer of the 50 Project

There are a few conclusive thoughts in order.

1. The project has panned out differently to what I expected before I started it. I expected more creative portraits like the ‘bike geek’ (11/50) or set scenes like ‘Sarah & Samuel’ (23/50). Instead the portraits are very much ad hoc and as I went through life. The main reason for this is that at this point in my life I simply don’t have the time to set up a creative portrait every day.

2. The trend of this project developed within the first ten portraits: to incorporate what the person in the portrait is about in the actual image. The postman’s letter. The hairdresser’s beautiful hair. The butcher’s knife and meat. The cooking queen's whisks. The majority of all portraits are along these lines.

3. Even if people are happy to be photographed, they are not necessarily confident in front of the camera and always need some direction by the photographer.

4. My personality hasn’t changed. I still need a little time to warm with my subject, I need to take at least 10 photos of that person and the best picture is usually the last one taken.

5. I like how the trend of this project developed by itself. I love going with the flow sometimes and see where it takes me. I don't feel I have fully achieved what I had set out to achieve. Consequently I am thinking about repeating the project, with different rules next time. I am not sure yet what these rules will be. But I can fully recommend doing a project like this to any experimental photographer!