Ok – on to my musings – which I’ll keep reasonably short

First – the B&W crusade continues. This time I’d like you to examine the images of Paul Huf – a Dutch photographer from the 60s and 70s. His work is classic fashion, but quirky and fully exploits the B&W image.

Another great image many of you will have seen is the Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange. It’s one of the great images of the 20th Century. This video by Simon Whistler tells you the story behind it. I’d also suggest you study the work of Lange and the Farm Security Administration – the photographs told powerful stories of a country in crisis and helped develop the art of photojournalism.

Now you all know how I feel about standard club photography. And if you journey to develop your own style, it pays to look at other work pushing boundaries and developing new ideas. The problem we often face is to make our images interesting to others. Yes, that photo of a child or a loved one has appeal to you. But what about a wider audience? So here are some portraits that may inspire you to try contemporary portrait techniques in Lens Culture by Lynn Whitney, Andrew Hershberger & Jacqueline S. Nathan

One thing you’ll need to start this journey are some methods to light your subjects. So here are a few that Raechel Scott documented in The Photo Argus a few months ago.

And finally, one of the many talented photographers pushing portraiture into fine art – works by Alex Di Cicco presented in Photogrist