Portrait Therapy
Jeremy Heinzmann offers his clients a space to be vulnerable, assisted by the Tamron 20-40mm F2.8 and 28-75mm F2.8 G2 lenses.
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By Jenn Gidman
Images by Jeremy Heinzmann
During the summer of 2020, Jeremy Heinzmann was working as a nurse in the local ICU, contending with the chaos of COVID and the sense of despair that came with it. “It was absolute hell at work, with a lot of sadness, and I needed an outlet to help me deal with all of it,” he says.
Jeremy turned to portrait photography, first recruiting people he knew whom he could convince to head out for a few hours so he could practice his craft. “It turned out to be very therapeutic for me,” he says. “And now, it’s often therapeutic for my clients, too, because I take the time to really get to know them before and during our session. I don’t want to deliver portraits that are filled with perfect smiles. I want my images to reflect who my subject truly is, even if that involves some sort of despair, sadness, or hardship. I want to offer them a safe space where they can be themselves.”
20-40mm (40mm), F2.8, 1/500 sec., ISO 125
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Central to Jeremy's craft are his Tamron lenses, including the 20-40mm F/2.8 Di III VXD wide angle and 28-75mm F2.8 Di III VXD G2 zoom for his Sony mirrorless camera system. “I’m lucky to live in Arizona, which is replete with stunning landscapes—it feels like a cheat code for taking photos,” he says. “The wide-angle ends of these lenses allow me to capture my subjects against these gorgeous backgrounds for a more environmental portrait. When I pull all the way out to 20mm with that 20-40mm, it’s amazing to see how much I can encapsulate in my images. The 28-75mm G2, meanwhile, gives me more versatility when I’m traveling, yet still allows me to adapt to the narrow alleyways and tight corners I often find myself in.”
JEREMY’S QUICK TIPS
Find locations that speak to you personally.
I always collaborate with my clients on where we’re going to shoot, but I often pick places that hold special meaning foe me. Many of these locations are places I retreated to over the past five years to decompress, and when I share this with clients, they appreciate that I’m being vulnerable with them, which transforms the whole experience for them.
20-40mm (32mm), F2.8, 1/320 sec., ISO 1600
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20-40mm (20mm), F3.5, 1/500 sec., ISO 100
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Seek out empty pockets in busy cities.
When you’re visiting a popular tourist destination, it can be difficult to find places to shoot that aren’t overrun with other people. When we visited the Greek islands, there was a lot of hurrying to a spot, then waiting for other people in the immediate vicinity to clear out of the frame. One person in the background is easy to edit out in post-production—streams of people are more much time consuming.
Coordinate outfits with the scenery.
This isn’t always possible, but if you research where you’re going and what it looks like ahead of time, this can help elevate your photos. For that image of my wife in Greece, I spotted the purple dress she’s wearing about months before our trip. I knew it would go so well with the whites and dark blues of the buildings in Greece, as well as with the lighter blues of the ocean. I dyed the scarf flowing behind her a deep royal purple to match. My wife still doesn’t know how much I spent on that dress.
28-75mm (31mm), F2.8, 1/250 sec., ISO 320
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Work your subjects’ personalities into their outfits.
I have a group of about 10 women that I’m friends with. I’ve assigned colors to each of them based on what I feel their personalities are, and I take photos using these colors. I’ll buy dresses and scarves (usually white, which I’ll then dye) for each of the women based on the color I’ve chosen for her. I’m eventually going to compile this series of photos into a coffee-table-style book. I consider my friend Veronica the sunshine of my life, and I thought yellow would complement the orange wildflowers surrounding her during our shoot in Tucson. She feels like a desert goddess, so that’s the look I was going for.
20-40mm (21mm), F2.8, 1/500 sec., ISO 200
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Don’t balk because conditions aren’t “perfect.”
Try to transform adversity into opportunity. The model you see here on the salt flats lives with me in Phoenix and was game to head to the Salt Lake City area to take these pictures. However, the day we went to take photos, it was freezing, with a freak snowstorm that emerged out of nowhere. But we headed out to the flats anyway, and I’m glad we did. My original vision for these photos involved a sunset reflecting over the water. Instead, I got these dramatic conditions, with stormy skies and reflections. It lends the images a powerful look that I couldn’t have planned for.
20-40mm (20mm), F2.8, 1/1600 sec., ISO 100
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