Every once in a while an acquaintance will ask me to do a portrait of them (or their kids).
Happens maybe two or three times a year.

I usually say: “Yes, but only if I can do whatever I want”.

You see, most of the people I photograph, I’m photographing for some other person
or entity. A magazine or advertising agency. An Art Director. Maybe a corporation.

I prefer this since it gives me (in a sense) way more freedom. I don’t have to satisfy
the subject…I only need to make my client happy. (I try to make myself happy, too,
but that’s a whole different story.)

I can’t count the times a subject has looked at a Polaroid or their image on the computer
during a shoot and said: “I look so fat”, or: “That’s horrible”. And so on. You get the idea.
Usually I just tell them to shut up, I say: “I’m not playing that game”. They seem to get that.

If they were the ones who were actually paying me, though, it would change the dynamic,
shift the power (at least a little bit, in my head).

So, the 2 or 3 times a year that I do “retail photography” I always make a point of telling the
folks right up front that I’ll only do it if I can have total freedom, just do what I want.

And they tell me: “That’s why we asked you”.