We often hear that we, photographers, don't necessarily need to travel the world or spend a lot of money to create beautiful photographs. That's exactly what Kavin Bradner endeavored to do when he began a weekly photographic ode to his girlfriend, calling it #maggiemondays.
All too often, as professional photographers, we neglect photographing our loved ones on a regular basis due to a never ending workload. However, would it not be great to change things up and create a project that documents your partner or family? Bradner, a photographer based in Spartanburg, South Carolina, had ended up with so many photographs of his girlfriend Maggie, that he had to come up with an idea that wold enable him to create and share the images in a consistent and thought through manner.
Starting the project on April 16th 2017, Bradner photographed Maggie every single week for a year. Each final image was then uploaded on his Instagram page and tagged as #maggiemondays. It's not easy to come up with new ideas every week, let alone with the same subject. Bradner also noted that coming from a small town, it wasn't always easy to find new locations to use for their shoot.
To tackle the creativity block, Bradner would use the time when he's out running to let his mind wander and come up with new ideas. Running also helped in scouting out new possible locations for shoots. Interestingly, Bradner admitted that taking time away from social media also sparked up his creativity, which was a crucial component for this project to succeed.
Their relationship as a couple wasn't affected much throughout this project but as with any commitment, there were times when one of them wasn't feeling up for it. However, the weekly deadline looming over the shoulder made both of them just simply get on with it and keep creating together. The project never had an intended goal as such, but it became a way to immerse themselves in creativity and see where it takes them.
The project ran its natural course and finished a year after it began, leaving both with a year's worth of photographs that showcase their vision, imagination and skill. Not just that, Bradner also learned to experiment with ways to try new ideas. He has since began using paper to aid in making his vision come alive in photographs, from doing basic sketches to creating storyboards instead of blindly going into a shoot.
Take a look on Kavin's Instagram for the full collection of #maggiemondays alongside his other work!
Images used with the permission of Kavin Bradner.
My wife and I shoot an image in the studio of each other every month and I shoot an image of the two of us. We usually take a glass of champagne or a martini with us. I wonder if anyone has any interest in seeing them other than the two of us.
Love the idea, it's so nice to see couples who make it a part of their relationship, sort of a hobby that brings them both together.
That's something that I need to do. I need to document our lives together. I have a few photos of my wife, but there are gaps and none recent.
Definitely, we, photographers, are the worst at this! No excuses now, though!
Nicely done. When my wife sees the camera she disappears faster than any magician I ever saw :-)
You just have to introduce it slowly ;)
It has been only 21 years in the making :-) On the other hand she has so many qualities.
I have a ball coming up with wierd shots to do with the girlfriend. Frankly there's no one better to work with if you want to experiment with different ideas. Even a TFP with a model comes with a certain amount of pressure to deliver something usable but the Significant Other will forgive you if you waste an hour or two of their time. Here's a King Kong pin up we did.
My wife hates having her picture taken. The fact I am alive to write this comment is testament to the fact I haven't attempted what the guy in this article did!
I´m one of those lucky ones that have full support of his better half. My wife joins me every time she can, modeling, motivating me. It´s great when within the couple we support each other. One holding hands even won a contest on Viewbug, others were sold on 500px.
This is one of those articles I had in my mind to write in a very long time. Thanks for sharing!
Here´s one example on a stunning location in Portugal.
You should definitely put them all together in either a slideshow for Youtube or maybe a PDF or print book! :)
Thank you, Anete! With time I will also display them on FS as well. There are some projects in my mind, let´s see how things will evolve this year.
I think in a way shooting is the easier fun part, whereas gathering it all together and making sense of it to create something tangible at the end of it - that's when it becomes hard!
Shooting and editing are the fun part as you said.Creating a style, the niche where we can fit, reach the audience, being consistent at it... that´s quite an odyssey!
I just wish I have the strength and some luck to get there. I deeply thank you your interest in my humble creations.
Love the idea! Will do this!
It's a nice idea, but here's my issue:
We are not all male photographers or shooting a female subject.
Photography communities in general are overwhelmingly men looking at women, and women being looked at.
Our whole society is geared around women feeling the need to look beautiful, To look like the models in the magazines, to pout doe-eyed at the camera. While men are uually the ones doing the looking.
Every photography website I open is just a feed full of passive looking women, often in various states of undress.
Just scroll down down to the 'featured photographs" to see what i mean.
Men are generally NOT socialized to pose for the camera. Most get very awkward.
Going by what my friends show me of dating apps, most men don't have many pictures of themselves outside of a group setting. Many seem unable to even take a decent selfie.
My boyfriend doesn't like me photographing him.
I can't blame him - our whole has a pretty narrow view of what a male model is, and most dudes do not aspire to be it.
Many of the comments here are dudes talking about photographing their wives or girlfriends.
Can we shake this up?
Men, please offer to be in more photographs, take your turn being the model.
Photograph your male friends and relatives.
We're oversaturated with portraits 'attractive' images of women".
Couldn't agree more! Whenever I shoot an engagement, it tends to be the men who are self conscious and when discussing couples shoots with women, they often say things to me like "he won't be up for it" or "I don't think I can make him do it" which makes me very sad. I've photographed older men properly only twice before and like you said I struggled to find any decent inspiration to create a moodboard for our shoot at all so had to just improvise and see what happens.