The Wide Angle Lens Portraits of Emmanuel Lubezki
Portrait by Chivo. Khumbu Valley. Nikon D800
Emmanuel Lubezki, also known as Chivo, is a master cinematographer. You might know his work from movies like Gravity(2013), the Revenant(2014), and Birdman(2015), which he won three consecutive academy awards for. He was born in Mexico and frequently collaborates with fellow Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón and American film director Terrance Malick.
He is known for using wide angles and natural light. These tools allow him to create an immersive experience where the audience is drawn into the story and forgets they are watching a movie. Even if the viewer isn't privy to the technical details, they subconsciously know something feels right.
Although Chivo gets the most attention for his movies, his photography is amazing too. I particularly love the portraits he posts on Instagram. A typical portrait photographer might shoot with a 80mm-105mm lens because these focal lengths flatter the subject. Chivo takes another tact, similar to what he does in his movies: he shoots many of his portraits around 24-28mm and makes use of the full dynamic range of light. He gets really close to people while taking pictures.
This shot, taken in the Sagrada Familia makes full use of the wide perspective. The darker elements combine nicely with the both the sun shining through the windows in the background and the light reflecting off the floor in the foreground, up onto the subjects face. (Taken with a Nikon D800 and 28mm lens):
Shot by Emmanual Lubeski in the Sagrada Familia
In these next shots, Lubezki also takes full advantage of the dynamic range of light and gets really close to his subjects, bringing out their expressive faces. I like how some of these people seem to lurk in the shadows. There is frequently a sense that a story plays out behind them.
"One of the most important characteristics for any equipment that I'm going to use is how well it can capture high dynamic range. I’m an old cinematographer, so I was used to the high dynamic range of film. If you consider the high dynamic range of Kodak [negative] film, especially in the latest years, to be like the 88 keys of a piano, that was what I needed to go out and capture the highlights, the sky, the shadows in the subject's hair, and so on." -Emmanuel Lubeski. Interview from DP Review
Chivo has certainly inspired me to a) get closer to my subjects and b) take advantage of what the a wide angle perspective can do. I also tend to test more frequently to see how much I can underexpose. In doing so, I can create rich blacks that still contain detail.
You can check out more of his photography that he posts on Instagram.
Shot by Emmanuel Lubezki. Khumbu Valley. Nikon D800 at 28mm.