Art struck Michael Gilbert before he picked up a camera. Painting, to be specific. The Tamron Image Master spent several years as a portrait painter, starting in high school. Only to now be a fine art portrait photographer in Hawaii.
I sat down with Michael to hear about his journey as a visual artist, how he works with his subjects and how he finds one-of-a-kind locations.
Inside the mind of a painter
“My introduction to photography was a little bit different than most,” Michael said. “I started off in high school — the principal had passed away. [When someone died] they did a giant oil painting, and stuck you on the wall. Back then to do a painting of a portrait — 40-by-60 inches — was about $5,000. Long story short, the art teacher said I could do it for $500.
“So they gave me this photograph, and I made a big painting and put a bookcase behind it. Was it a great painting? No, but they liked it. The crux of it is, other people started giving me photographs of the dearly departed. And I’d do the same thing — $500 is a lot of money to a kid.”
“I got to a point where I said, is the person still alive? If they are, I’ll do a portrait of them with my camera. And if you like what I do, I’ll paint from that.”
Taking those photographs of people made Michael understand the art of photography, and how to best use it to work with his paintings.
“With a portrait, you’ve got to engage somebody. You have to talk to them. Nobody usually likes to get their portrait taken anyway. Bottom line, if you can make a good portrait of someone where they look good, you’re going to make a good living. I learned that lesson early on.”
Moving into photography
“I learned a lot about portraiture way before Photoshop or any of that stuff. I knew how to make things kind of interesting. After a while, I got so many assignments doing portraits with my camera that I didn’t need to paint them anymore — I wasn’t a great painter any which way. So, hence, now I’m a photographer.”
But Michael isn’t just a photographer. Having an art background, he approaches things a bit differently than most.
“I come at it from a different point of view. [Things like] old black and white movies from the 50s — how they were beautifully lit — they really inspired me. There was always that classic background somewhere.”
The process of dance
I’m always curious to hear about a photographer’s process, and how oftentimes, it differentiates from my own or what I’ve heard from others. It’s no different with Michael, as he goes in-depth on a person’s environment and their background.
“My particular clients are already in the arts — they’re writers, filmmakers, painters, musicians … they’re usually in a field where they’re kind of looking for something that shows who they are or how they feel about themselves to some degree.
“So the first thing I’d do is get together with you and find out some of your particular passions. Being into the arts myself, I can pretty much handle a conversation with probably anyone. I just sort of try to get the nuts and bolts of who you are, but we often get a kind of an idea about what you’re looking for. It’s almost like a dance — we look at different things and come up with an idea, which may be multiple ideas, because we’re not one person. What are your dreams? What are your fantasies?
“I spend a lot more time with people than most probably would.”
In terms of selecting locations for his subjects, Michael uses a similar method.
“We’re going to inject the person into [the location] so that location can mean something. It could be a building, a field, a lava field, the ocean, in the water, an airplane … it could be anything.”
It’s all in the family
Michael isn’t the only photographer in his family, as his father and grandfather were both photographers. “I’m probably the most overeducated photographer on the planet,” Michael said.
“My dad was was was smart enough to be able to send me and introduced me to all the great photographers that he knew. So not only did I benefit from growing up being a darkroom with him when I was six or seven years of age, but when I got more competent, he could send me to pick up Yousuf Karsh at the airport in Toronto, and be his assistant to drive him on photoshoots.
“I also worked with André Kertész. I also was an assistant for Arnold Newman. I mean, they’re legends.
“The bottom line as an image maker — you are the sum total of your input, because that’s what your output is. So if you don’t have the input, what can you output? So when I looked at my own photographs, and I go back over them, it’s like, ‘Whoa, I see a bit of André Kertész here. Oh, I see some Arnold Newman. Oh, there’s some Yousuf Karsh. Oh, there’s some Sarah Moon. Oh, there’s some Irving Penn.’ You know, it’s just like, well, who are you? That’s the whole thing. I’m not quite sure. But I have a good time.”
Gear by accident
When Michael first used a Tamron lens, it was simply by accident. He was at a trade show, getting ready to speak, when his 70-200mm lens failed.
“I’m up there [getting ready], and I’m just about to take a photograph. It’s all set up and [I] make my test and my lens doesn’t work. And I needed a 70-200mm lens because that’s my favorite portrait lens,” Michael said. “The convention hall is next to me. But there’s two giant convention halls. I have less than 10 minutes and I’m on stage and this lens is dead. So I go in there and somebody says, ‘Well, the Canon booth is in the next hall.’
“As I step into the first convention hall, there’s a booth and it says Tamron. I know they made lenses, and I go over to the lady in front and I say ‘Hi. I have a problem.’ She went and put her hand in the case, and hands me a lens. I didn’t ask any questions, just tell her that I’ll bring it back. And off I go.
“The whole [class] goes as smooth as silk. I have a full class probably 200 people. I’m looking at the print and I think, ‘You know what? This is as good or better than what I’m using.’
“So I go back, and I give her lady back the lens. And I said to her, ‘This is as good as or better than what I use.’ And she just had a big smile on her face.”
At his next class, participants came up and were blown away at the lens. So much so that they visited the Tamron booth to tell them how much they liked the lens. And the rest was history, with Michael getting an invite to join the Tamron team.
Filling a need with Tamron
For a lot of Michael’s photoshoots, he goes to very remote areas, where he has a limited time to photograph, like the Wall of Tears in Maui. That means he can’t spend time changing a bunch of lenses.
“You need an expert pilot to get in there, and once you’re there, you don’t have a lot of time. You need a lens that’s going to be able to do everything. Tamron has a lens which is a 28-200mm that does everything. So when we went on the photoshoot, the lenses that I had were specific for that particular job. That’s where having the correct lens makes the job sort of happen.
“Tamron makes lenses that really suit a particular purpose. And they make them durable and lightweight. I could buy whatever I want, but even if I wasn’t attached to Tamron, I’d still buy the lens, right?”
For Michael, it’s all about the method to his art. With Tamron, he knows he can hit the ground running, no matter what the situation.
Michael is a wonderful Friend and his family are the Best his Dad was my mentor and a Great Friend. Al and I spent several years together him being in Canada and me in Tennessee USA. Probably the Best time in my Photography career.