A portrait photographer’s lessons for behind the lens, and in life.
“The minute the camera comes up, people’s guards come up.” This is one of the many lessons Kenneth Dolin has learned in his nearly 20 years of taking portraits, one that he’s tried to remember with every client that’s stood in front of his lens. He knows how unnatural it feels for his subjects, because he was in front of a lens himself when he was pursuing a career in acting. So he learned that while most photographers get their clients to pose, his job was to get them to stop posing. To help them take off their mask, and live truthfully in front of his camera.
Transitioning Behind the Camera
When Kenneth was an actor, he was always working to be what his manager or his agent wanted him to be, or following cues from photographers that never felt quite right. It was this experience that he wanted to change when he transitioned to a career behind the lens. With Kenneth Dolin Photography, his goal is to empower his subjects to be the truest version of themselves, not the “best” version.
To do this, listening to clients, and getting them to have fun in the shoot in integral. Fun and humor is a vital part of the process. So Kenneth always worked to inject his shoots with laughter. “It makes you breathe. It relaxes you. And it feels good.”
From multiple Emmy, Golden Globe and Academy Award nominees and winners, celebrities including SNL alums Chris Parnell and Molly Shannon, to up-and-comers, musicians, models, and luminaries from business and technology, it’s about helping people come out of their shells to reveal their most authentic selves.
He does this by being “part photographer, part life coach, part clown and part provocateur. It’s an unusual approach. It can take focus and faith. But it’s also fun.”
The Beauty is on the Inside
Kenneth works with his clients to bring out their inner beauty and break down their conventional thinking about what portraiture should be. He is guided in part by the words of Kahlil Gabran, “Beauty is not in the face, beauty is a light in the heart.” Whether it’s a shoot for People, Us Weekly, Vigour, Moevir, or other clients, his goal is to get people to see the real person in the photograph, because, as he likes to say, “People respond to moments of honesty in photographs, and conversely, the human eye can see every lie.”
An Expanding Brand
As the Kenneth Dolin Photography brand has expanded over the years, his work has evolved as has his clientele. While he started with actors and has continued shoots like Outer Banks actress Tomi Rose on the cover of Malvie Magazine, he’s had recent projects in the literary world, which have included authors, and a jacket shoot for Hachette Publishing. He has also shot high-end branding and lifestyle, including a recent shoot for Dr. Cat Begovic, a.k.a. “Dr. 90210.”
Throughout this evolution as an artist, Kenneth’s work has continued to focus on honest, compelling portraits that invite the viewer in. Imagery that captures more than how clients look, but rather WHO they are.
Portraiture is about discovering a person. And so Kenneth likes to meet a client for the first time at the shoot, if possible, to avoid over planning, and to keep them from overthinking the process or being TOO strategic. Sometimes the things that are not planned, that come from a client getting to know Kenneth and Kenneth getting to know a client, the “unscripted moments,” are the most interesting. As Kenneth likes to say, “Plan as much as you can, but then ‘bring it and wing it.’”
The Student Becomes the Teacher
All of these lessons and all this knowledge has had a profound effect on Kenneth, and a big part of his brand is sharing that knowledge with others. He offers professional mentoring to other photographers, saying that at this point in his career, “he’s not afraid to share his secrets” with his students and mentees, whether it’s over Zoom meetings or workshops or face-to-face mentoring, Kenneth finds immense purpose in helping other artists ascend both artistically and professionally.
Kenneth’s approach to teaching is not just a focus on the functions of a camera. As Kenneth likes to say, “nobody has ever written the great novel by knowing where to put the comma and period. It’s about storytelling. It’s about getting the best out of anyone who steps in front of your camera. And getting the best out of yourself.” Teaching is a passion for Kenneth, as is motivating his students to end limiting mindsets that block their paths to artistic success.
The throughline to all of this is Kenneth’s passion and enthusiasm for creating work that shows the subject’s authentic self. His philosophy to photography, and life itself is laid out in his TED talk.
The Tao of portraits | Ken Dolin | TEDxManhattanBeach
He urges his subjects, his students, and anyone who has trouble letting their guard down to take off their figurative masks. He believes that the things we try to hide, the masks we wear, because we are concerned about judgment are antithetical to what will actually attract the right people. And that taking down those masks and being authentic, is the key to both branding and being. “Be authentic. Be your best TRUE you. Do it without fear. Be wonderfully, beautifully YOU. Do it at the office, do it at school, do it at home, do it when you’re out with friends,or god forbid if you ever need to be photographed.”
