Michael Scott – Margate Portraits

Crossing Lines welcomed LIP member, Michael Scott, to show a recent series of portraits and talk about his approach to photographing portraits with strangers.

At previous meetings, Michael Scott has shown photographs of the construction of the Jubilee Line extension, his ongoing protestor portraits and he engaged many members, from across London Independent Photography, with his 360 Migration project. The photos for this meeting, were from one roll of film and were a portraiture series of beachgoers in Margate.

Michael explained why asking for permission to photograph portraits creates images that are more engaging, with the viewer seemingly in direct eye contact with the person in the photo.

After the presentation, the discussion was about the reasons for obtaining consent when approaching strangers for a portrait, how this is handled and whether this is usually met with a positive response as well as the difference it makes to the resulting images. We all learnt something from Michael sharing his experience and our thanks to him for showing these wonderful portrait photos and contributing to an excellent meeting.