In one of my screenwriting classes, we looked at the set up in The Usual Suspects. Do you remember it? The mealy mouthed cripple, Verbal Kint, in the detective’s office, says of Keyser Soze, “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

That line haunts you the rest of the film. That is a great set up. And the genius of the line is it takes a complicated theme and puts it into incredibly simple terms.

This same idea can be used, to great effect, in photography as well.

This is a subject I’ve been thinking about quite a bit lately and I’m not sure where I first encountered it in practice (the only place I can think to point to is Dan Winters, who does it infinitely better than anyone), but simplicity – simple light, simple composition, simple posture – is the best way I’ve found to expose for honest emotion.

I recently did portraits for Need Him, a non-profit whose mission is to give people a chance to hear the story of God’s love for mankind as it was personified in Jesus. They wanted their story to be told with authenticity, so early on, the decision was made to cast ordinary people instead of models.

However, people are a complicated tangle of story lines and emotions and most put up high walls that hide the honest, authentic emotion from strangers. Putting a camera in their face or being placed under a bunch of lights while being told what to do only adds to their discomfort.

So, as excited as I was about the opportunity to explore some of the complexity that real people bring with them, I knew that in order to create an environment where that could happen, I would need a simple set up.

I used a single head, camera left, as my key & outfitted it with a 1×4 strip box placed just in front of the subject & the spill from that strobe gave me just enough exposure on the background. For a bit of fill, I placed my 5-in-1 reflector, the translucent white part, on a light stand opposite the key. Occasionally I threw in a stool or a posing table for my subject to interact with. Each person ended up needing a subtle tweak to the positions of the key & reflector, but the simplicity of the set up helped me take down the walls and created a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere for exploring a range of emotion.

Going back to The Usual Suspects, you don’t fully understand the power of Verbal’s line from the first of the film until he reprises it at the end, in voice over, as the detective scrambles out to the street, having put all the details together and we see the cripple lose his limp and transform into Keyzer Soze – the Devil himself. It’s one of the most rewarding film endings I can think of and not because you are aware of the story telling technique being used. It’s rewarding because of what you’re seeing happen on the screen.

Just like in the movies, a simple photography set up isn’t effective because it’s simple; it’s effective because the resulting photographs make the viewer feel what you want them to feel – in this case, to feel a connection with the universal human longings for purpose, meaning, hope and joy.

On a related note, Need Him has been running a really great television spot that touches on these themes & they also launched their new website. If you have a minute, check them out.

an e-card available through Bible Illuminated

i can’t remember where i first encountered the book, but i know my buddy Jonathan at the creation project blogged about it back in October. anyway, today i received another email from my good friend John about the book and he linked to the Swedish version that’s been out since last year. i dug a little deeper and was really blown away by what this group out of Sweden is doing.

more after the jump.

the images are, for the most part, spectacular. i will say that at times they are reaching, but the images images i have seen are challenging. why pair a guy leaping off a dock into the water with John the Baptists words from Matthew 3? do i really think of Baptism as this joyous leap? is that at the heart of what Matthew was trying to convey? it gave me pause and pushed me toward the bible.

mission accomplished.

look at the moster Behemoth; I created him and I created you.

i have a small ongoing project that i’ve been working on where i take a piece of scripture that i’ve been meditating on and pair it with an image from my archives. it’s a deeply personal project, a visual record of my conversations with God, but i’ve found that it’s been a great way for me to engage these ancient words and make them come alive in ways that i can relate to. i’m glad that this version of the Bible is out there and hope that it gives people access to the living water Jesus offers us.

abraham looked around and saw a ram caught in a bush by its horns. he went and got it and offered it as a burnt offering instead of his son.

i do wonder why they haven’t credited the photographers? seems like an odd decision.