Hopeless Perfection and the Creative Itch – Interview with Chris Mann, Portrait Photographer

In this in-depth episode, Kevin is in conversation with Chris Mann,  Portrait Photographer, they are great friends and share a passion for the expression of the artist, whatever the medium. This is a great listen as they discuss their own artistic disciplines and the ways in which its important to reach people and truly touch them emotionally. Chris started out as an actor and moved into photography where he now specialises in headshots that truly capture the individual. All art is context, it’s about the deeper meaning, the journey taken, explored and the arrival at that particular moment listen in and hear about Chris’s journey.   KEY TAKEAWAYS You can’t learn anything inside your own experience if you know it you know it and you’ll be standing still. What I do, the headshots are so similar every day that now I’m an expert at it but there is creativity in it, people come to me because they need something it’s much more important to facilitate what they want – looking like themselves, looking interesting I saw a problem with how headshots were taken, that people are always expected to be still. I’ve never had a decent headshot taken - I’ve never been still. Creativity is an itch for me that has to be scratched but it doesn’t have to be about being  in front of others my voice can be heard and I can say what I want to say through my camera I still take pictures of other things to meet my creativity these photos belong to me alone whereas headshots are about being with and working with someone else. By asking yourself questions and looking at things differently you can move your art forward Dance is a physical vocabulary People do the weirdest things with their bodies when you don’t get in the way of it and it photographs beautifully because it’s authentic. The only thing that can bring a moving 3d human look and feel like themselves in a flat 2d photograph is the series of shapes their body and face make on a macro and micro level as they exist. The things that are inherently them are the micro muscles around their eyes to the whole movement of heads and shoulders, what they do to exist. Art is about saying and expressing something that cannot be communicated in any other way. I don’t need to prove I was there; I need to prove I was there and saw something different When people come for in for a headshot they haven’t been waiting to do that shot all their lives they’ve been walking around perfectly fine up until that point. Photography is about a box and it’s my job to facilitate the shapes within it. Photography is about resonance and recklessness. All art is context, it’s about the deeper meaning, the journey taken, explored and the arrival at that particular moment. Positive biased confirmation is very strong, in art we see what we want to see. Great art lets you see other things about yourself.   BEST MOMENTS ‘It’s the difference between doing your job and discovering’  ‘A lot of what I do is problem-solving’ ‘You should never be disappointed with your headshot’    VALUABLE RESOURCES The Kevin Clifton Show podcast Chris Mann Portraits Chris Mann Instagram     ABOUT THE HOST Kevin Clifton is a professional dancer who has been performing & competing at the highest level for over a decade. Kevin has worked on shows like 'Burn the floor' & 'Rock of Ages' to 'Strictly Come Dancing' one of the biggest TV shows in the UK which Kevin won in 2018.    CONTACT METHOD Kevin Clifton Instagram Kevin Clifton Facebook Kevin Clifton YouTube