Rangefinder Magazine
July 2005

Click Here for printable version of this article.

Tim Kelly Style Is by Michelle Perkins
What Comes Naturally

So what is it that makes a Tim Kelly portrait a Tim Kelly portrait? There’s no “secret ingredient” or piece of signature equipment; he draws on the same arsenal of techniques as all other well schooled and experienced portrait photographers. However, because Tim Kelly is Tim Kelly, the creative choices he makes when applying these techniques result in an image that reflects his unique set of likes and dislikes.

“There are many parts to a whole,” says Kelly. “The attributes are nothing spectacular on their own, they’re just a tabulation of how many things look a certain way. For me, there are a lot of classic elements in my work. My major portraits have a pleasant expression with a closed mouth. I tend to like things that look naturally lit so you don’t feel like there’s any kind of studio situation. My compositions tend to be more traditional, although somewhat loose. The quality of the capture and the printmaking is also an area where we take control. I’ve been doing my own printmaking for 40 years, and I don’t let anything out of my hands or the building until I’m completely satisfied with the quality of the print. That’s another one of the things on that checklist that add up to a Tim Kelly portrait.”

Another photographer faced with the same choices and same arsenal of techniques would probably create something different—and it’s precisely this idea that Kelly feels is at the heart of photographic style, whether his own or anyone else’s. “From my own point of view, I think style is almost inherent, almost a built-in way of seeing things,” he says. “You can certainly study other masters, other artists and other art forms to refine the look, but ultimately you’re going to be creating things that please your eye. Personal style is what I really try to direct my students toward finding—what it is they naturally want to create visually.”

A teacher once told Kelly that if you could go back and review the first roll of film you shot as a young hobbyist when just starting to dabble with the camera, you would see in those first images things that ultimately are part of your style—that which is built into you, that which won’t change. “I looked at some of the early stuff I shot when I was 12 or 13 years old, and he was right. They didn’t look that much different from what I do today,” says Kelly. “Now, that’s not to say you just step out of the box and you’re ready to go, but it does say there’s an attribute to the art part of the equation that is natural. So, while it’s good to study the masters of today and years gone by to learn how to do a classic look or certain styles, you eventually want to land in your own space where you are unique. I studied with the best in portraiture, but I’ve ended up doing images that please me artistically.”

While understanding and developing your personal style may seem an ephemeral matter when aligned against the practical day-to-day realities of running a business, Kelly points out that your style can actually have a major impact on achieving your professional goals.

“Style has everything to do with it,” he says. “The success of my studio is really based on my success in finding people with a like vision. You have to do what your community wants, but you also have to be doing what you want—I mean, you can’t be a counterfeit of somebody else down the street. Setting yourself apart from your competitors in your city or in your area is very important. The more unique you are, the better, so I’m a strong advocate of finding your own style and sticking to niche marketing as best you can.”

Kelly speaks from experience. In the late 1980s, he opened a new studio/gallery in a very posh location, but at the last minute he realized he hadn’t put anything in his windows (he’d never really had storefront windows before). Because he only had a day or two until he opened, in a couple of hours he shot three black-and-white children’s portraits—two of his own kids and one of his salesman’s children. He picked his favorites and had them in the window the next day. The results of these on-the-fly images were instantaneous.

Recalls Kelly, “From that time forward—for years—I couldn’t give away a color portrait. I was selling all children’s black and white because of what my community saw in the window in those three prints. What it did was reveal me to them. It created such a stir that every studio within two or three hours of me was copying that. It was amazing. I did these non-smiling, very loose, super-sharp portraits, and that quality and mood drew a crowd to my window every day. It sent a message to me, ‘Hey! This is what you’re good at, and this is what people like from you!’ I revealed what I was instinctively able to do easily,” says Kelly, “and people reacted to it.”

This was an important realization for Kelly and one he encourages other photographers to learn from. The reason is simple: Staying true to a personal style breeds success. “When I teach now,“ says Kelly, “I tell people that if clients are coming to my studio to buy my interpretation, and I am true to myself and do what I want with everybody, then I will never fail. If I was trying to copy someone else, I could fall short of the clients’ expectations, but if I’m always doing Tim Kelly’s interpretation of the child or the group, it’s always going to be right. That’s where we can really jump ahead of our competition, by creating demand for something only we can do.”

For more information on Tim Kelly, his images, or his ample teaching materials for professional photographers, visit his web site: www.timkellyportraits.com/.

Michelle Perkins is a professional writer, designer and image retoucher. She has written for PC Photo and is the author of Beginner’s Guide to Adobe Photoshop, The Practical Guide to Digital Imaging, and Color Correction and Enhancement with Adobe Photoshop (all from Amherst Media).