From the B&H Used Department: Portraits by Gregory Diamond

Gregory Diamond has been working in the B&H Photo Used Department for about a year. Born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Diamond is a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Photography and Brooks Institute. After getting his graduate degree from Brooks, he worked in the Rental Department at Samy’s Camera, which is one of the few pro shops in the Los Angeles marketplace. When the opportunity to head back east for a job at B&H that being was offered, he jumped at the chance.

Diamond began taking pictures of his customers at the sales counter shortly after purchasing a used Yashica T4 Super that came into the Used Department. The Yashica T4 Super, an unassuming pocket film camera with a 35mm f/3.5 Zeiss lens, is considered by many to be one of the best pocket-sized film cameras ever made. Best of all, it could be purchased for less than $200.

The camera’s AF system is quick and accurate, it’s splash-proof, and to facilitate discreet street photography, there’s a handy built-in waist-level finder on the camera’s top deck that allows you to photograph your subject indirectly, from a 90-degree angle.

Photographs © Gregory Diamond, 2017

Diamond was quick to note the first thing many customers did when handing them a camera was to hold it up to their eye and go through the motion of taking a picture of him. He would then respond by taking a picture of the customer taking his picture. Not only was this a wonderful ice-breaker for connecting with his customers, it also proved to be the seeds of a wonderful series of photographs.

Something he picked up on was that it didn’t matter who the customer was, where they came from, what language they spoke, or how old they were—almost everybody instinctually lifted the camera to their eye, focused, and took his picture.

At first, Diamond took his back-at-cha portraits as an act of whimsy, but as he began showing his pictures to friends, co-workers, and customers, he realized he was onto something that resonated with everybody to whom he’s shown them, yours truly included.

Diamond follows a self-imposed set of rules when taking pictures of his customers. Initially, the customer must take his picture first. If they take his picture, they qualify as possible candidates for the series. At that point he explains his portrait series to his customer, shows them samples on his phone and, if they agree, he takes their picture.

Part of the appeal of these pictures, especially as a whole, is that each of the images has a nearly identical visual dynamic, i.e., a counter-up portrait of a person centrally located within the frame with a camera held up to their eyes. This dynamic is further reinforced by the rows of store lights that seemingly radiate from behind the person. When viewed as a group, they are extremely reminiscent of the powerful industrial photographs captured by Bernd and Hilla Becher in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. To a lesser extent, they can also be compared to the profile portraits taken by Boris Mikhalilov, and Susan Barnett’s wonderful “I Wear What I Want to Wear” series of photographs of the backs of people’s T-shirts.

To date, only two out of more than 200 customers with whom he has interacted have refused to participate. His goal? “I want to shoot 1,000 portraits and then maybe I’ll do a book.” For Diamond, his project represents the universal appeal of photography, and what better place to produce this body of work than B&H Photo—a company built around the magic of picture-taking. “For me, this project illustrates the mass appeal of photography, not to mention the mass appeal of B&H as destination for photographers,” says Diamond.