Louis specialises in portraiture and works with individuals to uncover their stories through the image-making process. Collaboration is a fundamental value in the way he approaches his work.
“Every single portrait has a story behind it,” he says.
“We can never capture the true self, or the true representation of someone, it’s always a snippet of something that we’re looking at.”
One of Louis’ first collaborative portrait series was Strangely Familiar, project working with three people with a disability, exploring themes such as sexuality, identity and love.
“I spent a lot of time hanging out with them, chatting with them, interviewing them and then through those conversations I worked and collaborated with them in the stories that they wanted to tell.”
As he puts it: “It wasn’t my story. The story was ours”.
Other of Louis’ projects include the Homesickness Project, which was created in collaboration with Logan community residents, and Words Are All I Have, a project that explored the idea of peace through photographing people that have been through war –a collaboration between Louis, a writer and members of the Queensland community.
He also collated a series called Waiting For Sunshine during an Artist’s Residency with the Lady Cilento Childrens Hospital, about children waiting in intensive care units.
As you can see, his work has seen him collaborate with many diverse members of society covering a broad range of themes that, essentially, all contribute to the patchwork of stories that make up the world we live in.
Here he answers some interesting questions about his process -
Q: What is your process like?
A: There’s lots of talking to them. I always start off with sitting down and talking with them…
Some stories are quite heart-wrenching. Some a lot more positive. But every single time I went in and photographed someone I had the intention of making that one key image, and then anything else that happened I’d take that too. Other things are nice to capture, but we don’t really know until we go through that process.
I usually just go and say how are you? And then I see things around the place and we chat. People like to talk. People like to talk and share their stories. What I found is people heal through the chats. They come to certain things. And I come to certain things too.
Q: Do people know you’re waiting to get a shot or do they think you’re puffing around playing with your camera?
A: Trying to break down that facade, that guard… sometimes I do chat and talk a lot and sometimes I make the photo when they’re not aware of it. Other times I stay silent. With the mask of the camera, I do have to go through a lot of process to set it up and focus… so they are relaxed because they know you’re sorting out settings too. It’s a time consuming process but at the same time that’s when things happen – and things that you don’t expect.
Q: Do the people you work with have any say in what images you pick?
A: I think it’s important that if you take a portrait of someone that you have their consent before handing it out. Most of the time I go back to them and say: what do you think, do you mind me showing this image? How about this? I think that’s important. I would like them to feel comfortable having an image shown around, of them.
There were situations where they replied back and said: I don’t like that image, the room is too messy, or something like that. So I had to look at other images – but usually there are a few options. Then I go back to them and say: well how about this one?
Q: Why does one of your portraits not really even have their face in the image?
A: A lot of the time it comes back to the person – if they say they don’t want it. Personally I don’t mind having a portrait where the face isn’t being shown. A portrait is a representation of someone. And the representation of someone doesn’t mean how the person looks, but also the representation of every other thing – the background, the surroundings that they’re in, the context that they’re in. Sometimes it’s more important than how they actually look themselves.
Q: At what point in your life did you discover your love of photography and portrait photography?
A:At first I was put out of my comfort zone because I did not know a lot about people. When you first enter someone’s personal space, a lot of things are quite similar person to person, but also a lot of things are different, and the stories are different. But essentially, there are a lot of things that connect us as humans.
That’s something that pulled me into it – I’m interested in this whole whole connecting with human element. Portraiture allows me to do that in some ways. Where it is an excuse… it’s hard to go off randomly and talk to someone at a bus stop for instance. The camera does give some sort of entry, it can be dangerous too, but the camera can be an entry point to introducing someone.
To read more about Louis and view his work, check out his website.
Q&A with photographer Louis Lim on the Importance of Collaboration
Louis specialises in portraiture and works with individuals to uncover their stories through the image-making process. Collaboration is a fundamental value in the way he approaches his work.
“Every single portrait has a story behind it,” he says.
“We can never capture the true self, or the true representation of someone, it’s always a snippet of something that we’re looking at.”
One of Louis’ first collaborative portrait series was Strangely Familiar, project working with three people with a disability, exploring themes such as sexuality, identity and love.
“I spent a lot of time hanging out with them, chatting with them, interviewing them and then through those conversations I worked and collaborated with them in the stories that they wanted to tell.”
As he puts it: “It wasn’t my story. The story was ours”.
Other of Louis’ projects include the Homesickness Project, which was created in collaboration with Logan community residents, and Words Are All I Have, a project that explored the idea of peace through photographing people that have been through war –a collaboration between Louis, a writer and members of the Queensland community.
He also collated a series called Waiting For Sunshine during an Artist’s Residency with the Lady Cilento Childrens Hospital, about children waiting in intensive care units.
As you can see, his work has seen him collaborate with many diverse members of society covering a broad range of themes that, essentially, all contribute to the patchwork of stories that make up the world we live in.
Here he answers some interesting questions about his process -
Q: What is your process like?
A: There’s lots of talking to them. I always start off with sitting down and talking with them…
Some stories are quite heart-wrenching. Some a lot more positive. But every single time I went in and photographed someone I had the intention of making that one key image, and then anything else that happened I’d take that too. Other things are nice to capture, but we don’t really know until we go through that process.
I usually just go and say how are you? And then I see things around the place and we chat. People like to talk. People like to talk and share their stories. What I found is people heal through the chats. They come to certain things. And I come to certain things too.
Q: Do people know you’re waiting to get a shot or do they think you’re puffing around playing with your camera?
A: Trying to break down that facade, that guard… sometimes I do chat and talk a lot and sometimes I make the photo when they’re not aware of it. Other times I stay silent. With the mask of the camera, I do have to go through a lot of process to set it up and focus… so they are relaxed because they know you’re sorting out settings too. It’s a time consuming process but at the same time that’s when things happen – and things that you don’t expect.
Q: Do the people you work with have any say in what images you pick?
A: I think it’s important that if you take a portrait of someone that you have their consent before handing it out.Most of the time I go back to them and say: what do you think, do you mind me showing this image? How about this? I think that’s important. I would like them to feel comfortable having an image shown around, of them.
There were situations where they replied back and said: I don’t like that image, the room is too messy, or something like that. So I had to look at other images – but usually there are a few options. Then I go back to them and say: well how about this one?
Q: Why does one of your portraits not really even have their face in the image?
A: A lot of the time it comes back to the person – if they say they don’t want it. Personally I don’t mind having a portrait where the face isn’t being shown. A portrait is a representation of someone. And the representation of someone doesn’t mean how the person looks, but also the representation of every other thing – the background, the surroundings that they’re in, the context that they’re in. Sometimes it’s more important than how they actually look themselves.
Q: At what point in your life did you discover your love of photography and portrait photography?
A:At first I was put out of my comfort zone because I did not know a lot about people. When you first enter someone’s personal space, a lot of things are quite similar person to person, but also a lot of things are different, and the stories are different. But essentially, there are a lot of things that connect us as humans.
That’s something that pulled me into it – I’m interested in this whole whole connecting with human element. Portraiture allows me to do that in some ways. Where it is an excuse… it’s hard to go off randomly and talk to someone at a bus stop for instance. The camera does give some sort of entry, it can be dangerous too, but the camera can be an entry point to introducing someone.
To read more about Louis and view his work, check out his website.
