Travis Duncan Keeps it Simple

TravisDuncan is what you might call a “no-s*** guy.”

There’s no pretense in the man’s photography: his sports work goes the extra yard to give his subjects and images a certain dynamic quality, but other portfolios – like his “State Fair Series” and especially his intense portraits – strive to be as simple as possible, to show subjects in their most natural states and let their individual qualities do the talking.

His “Chef Series” is content to simply show chefs in their environment without falling into kitchen clichés. His “Straight Aces/Tattoo Shop” portfolio allows him a little more inventiveness, but such is the nature of that particular beast. The images still never cross the line into exaggeration. To really understand the art of Travis’s simplicity, though, check out this smoky portrait of his grandfather, which Travis proudly notes “portrays him as he really is.”

“Papa,” the photographer says, is “a quiet man who enjoys the simple things in life, like smoking his tobacco pipe.” There are plenty of other examples among his portraits showing people as they truly are – no discernible background, no special lighting, no props; just the subjects and Travis’ lens – but this simpler-is-better technique is most noticeable in his Papa portrait (except, of course, for that pipe, which is not so much a prop as a sort of spiritual extension of his grandfather).

While he’s proud of the commercial success of his grandfather’s portrait, it remains a very personal heirloom for Travis– and a strong testament to his simplicity-rules style.

“The biggest obstacle I faced in creating this image was lighting the smoke, or backlighting the smoke, without having significant spill onto the subject,” he says. “Otherwise, it wasn’t too complicated to create.” Not too complicated. Just the way Travis likes it.

Click here to see more of Travis’ amazingly simple, amazingly effective creations.