People Pictures: 30 Exercises for Creating Authentic Photographs

8. Resonate

Rather than asking someone to act or perform, sometimes letting them be works best. Look for those moments just after the subject exhales and faces the camera without putting up a front. Here Timmy Curran, a professional surfer, world traveler, and musician, stops and stands in silence as the train approaches.

Canon 5DMii, 85mm lens, f/2.2

CONTRIVED, FAKE, FRAUDULENT, and insincere: These are qualities that people and cultures across the world reject. We’re hard-wired to value genuine, authentic, and real. Whether at the cinema, viewing photographs, or reading a magazine, we want to believe in what is in front of our eyes. We want ...