Portrait Definition -
Portrait - A painting, drawing, photograph often focusing on an individual.
Portraiture - The art of painting or taking photographs.
Portraiture - The art of painting or taking photographs.
My interpretation of portraiture - Any form of image documenting a person or something representative of that person.
Photographer Research -
Alec Soth -
Born: 1969
Died: N/A
Place of Birth: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Occupation: Photographer
Group: Magnum Photos
- Soth's work had been referred to as cinematographic and almost like a fantasy.
- He is a member of Magnum Photos.
- His work features the ordinary people and everyday objects.
- Soth has said that he wants his work to display a "narrative arc and storytelling".
- Soth has photographed for many publications within the field of newspapers and magazines.
- Soth founded the publishing company 'Little Brown Mushroom' where he published people who work in a similar narrative way to himself.
Alec Soth Examples:
This image is part of the series "Sleeping by the Mississippi" with the subject of the image being an apt fan of aviation. The muted colours are like that of a polaroid picture which are often associated with intimacy between friends and family photography. Soth, therefore, creates an individual narrative and shares intimate nature with his subjects.
This photograph depicts convicts completing rehabilitation and work in Kentucky. The parallelism between the convicts and the holy cross could be considered a juxtaposition as often crimes are considered sins. The image also depicts a repentant nature implicitly. The narrative is open and could unravel in many ways and therefore keeps the audience intrigued.
This final image is variant from the other two. This photograph is from the series "Songbook" which is a black and white series. The work features stark contrasts between youth and aged and their cultures in my opinion.
Richard Avedon:
Avedon is a portrait photographer who focuses mainly in the black and white genre. The three images below are featured in a series entitled 'In the American West'. Like Soth, Richard Avedon studies regional identity, specifically in this series, and evokes a series of questions within an audience. The black and white appears to have been used to exaggerate the forms of the human body in the portraiture but could also symbolise something more deeply about how skin colour is irrelevant.
Thomas Ruff:
Ruff employs a deadpan appearance within his portraiture that are reminiscent of a passport photo. It could be argued that Ruff defies gender norms by giving female subjects a blue background whilst male subjects are given pink. Ruff, unlike a few of the other photographers featured here, focuses on ordinary people rather than the lifestyles of the rich and famous celebrities. Thomas Ruff is sometimes questioned as a photographer due to his style that is considered controversial.
Avedon is a portrait photographer who focuses mainly in the black and white genre. The three images below are featured in a series entitled 'In the American West'. Like Soth, Richard Avedon studies regional identity, specifically in this series, and evokes a series of questions within an audience. The black and white appears to have been used to exaggerate the forms of the human body in the portraiture but could also symbolise something more deeply about how skin colour is irrelevant.
Low
Ruff employs a deadpan appearance within his portraiture that are reminiscent of a passport photo. It could be argued that Ruff defies gender norms by giving female subjects a blue background whilst male subjects are given pink. Ruff, unlike a few of the other photographers featured here, focuses on ordinary people rather than the lifestyles of the rich and famous celebrities. Thomas Ruff is sometimes questioned as a photographer due to his style that is considered controversial.
Key Lighting Contact Sheet -
Portraits -
All of these images were taken in the studio on a Canon EOS 450D. Using the mono-block with a snoot placed on the end to create a modelling light I used the settings of ISO: 200, shutter speed of 1/125 and an f/stop value of f/16.
All of these images were taken in the studio on a Canon EOS 450D. Using the mono-block with a snoot placed on the end to create a modelling light I used the settings of ISO: 200, shutter speed of 1/125 and an f/stop value of f/16.
Tuesday, 24 November 2015
Portraiture Straight Images / Work Diary -
Portraiture -
Thomas Ruff
The above images are in the style of the portrait artist Thomas Ruff who focused on deadpan expressions with contrasting vibrant backdrops. I like these images as the composition and colour are reminiscent of the photographer Thomas Ruff. I am pleased with the visual outcome although I believe that it could be improved using a variety of background colours. These images were taken in a studio using the settings 1/125 shutter speed, ISO 200 and f/22 on fully maul settings using manual focus. I believe my attempt was reasonably successful in acquiring a pastiche of the photographer who served as inspiration. The images replicate the passport style size of pictures, the deadpan expression and the vibrant highly saturated backgrounds.
Richard Avedon -
The above images were taken in the style of Richard Avedon's series focusing on the 'American West'. I like this image as it demonstrates the basic composition used by the photographer Richard Avedon. Avedon also often included props relating to his subjects and thus I included the prop of a camera to obscure the identity of the subject and show how photography takes on a large role in their lifestyle. This image is successful due to the use of vignette, highly contrasted black and white through levels and the central composition of the subject. However, I think that during editing I have made these images too dark and if I was to improve upon them I would adjust the contrast in Photoshop.
Progression -
To improve from my current Thomas Ruff inspired final outcomes I would retake the bottom left hand image as the subject does not conform to the same composition and facial expressions as the other three. To improve my second series inspired by Richard Avedon I would not edit the final images as much as I have. The final images vignette is too far in and shrouded the subject of the image.
Portraiture Image Bank Continued -
Portraiture -
Annie Leibovitz:
Annie Leibovitz photographs mostly famous faces such as Anne Hathaway and Adele and also does photography for publicity such as the first image feature below. Leibovitz did the publicity photography for 'Les Miserables'. Leibovitz work focuses significantly on the use of light and the saturation of colour. As a photographer I find Leibovitz's work to be fascinating through the use of the formal elements such as colour within her portraits.
Thomas Ruff:
Ruff employs a deadpan appearance within his portraiture that are reminiscent of a passport photo. It could be argued that Ruff defies gender norms by giving female subjects a blue background whilst male subjects are given pink. Ruff, unlike a few of the other photographers featured here, focuses on ordinary people rather than the lifestyles of the rich and famous celebrities. Thomas Ruff is sometimes questioned as a photographer due to his style that is considered controversial.
David Lachapelle:
Lachapelle is an extremely controversial photographer often focusing on extreme circumstances of the nude human form. Lachapelle is also a celebrity photographer who uses bold colours and out of the ordinary ideas whilst studying the human form and identity; working with celebrities regularly, Lachapelle, provides an interpretation of a famous face that the public may not be familiar with.
Alec Soth:
Alec Soth studies identity through his portraiture with some of his books being entitled 'Broken Days', 'Dog Days Bogota' and 'Sleeping by the Mississippi'. Most of Soth's works study regional identity and appear almost like a polaroid picture due to the hue and saturation of the colours; as a result Soth's works evoke an almost nostalgic feeling in the audience.
Richard Avedon:
Avedon is a portrait photographer who focuses mainly in the black and white genre. The three images below are featured in a series entitled 'In the American West'. Like Soth, Richard Avedon studies regional identity, specifically in this series, and evokes a series of questions within an audience. The black and white appears to have been used to exaggerate the forms of the human body in the portraiture but could also symbolise something more deeply about how skin colour is irrelevant.
Annie Leibovitz:
Annie Leibovitz photographs mostly famous faces such as Anne Hathaway and Adele and also does photography for publicity such as the first image feature below. Leibovitz did the publicity photography for 'Les Miserables'. Leibovitz work focuses significantly on the use of light and the saturation of colour. As a photographer I find Leibovitz's work to be fascinating through the use of the formal elements such as colour within her portraits.
Thomas Ruff:
Ruff employs a deadpan appearance within his portraiture that are reminiscent of a passport photo. It could be argued that Ruff defies gender norms by giving female subjects a blue background whilst male subjects are given pink. Ruff, unlike a few of the other photographers featured here, focuses on ordinary people rather than the lifestyles of the rich and famous celebrities. Thomas Ruff is sometimes questioned as a photographer due to his style that is considered controversial.
David Lachapelle:
Lachapelle is an extremely controversial photographer often focusing on extreme circumstances of the nude human form. Lachapelle is also a celebrity photographer who uses bold colours and out of the ordinary ideas whilst studying the human form and identity; working with celebrities regularly, Lachapelle, provides an interpretation of a famous face that the public may not be familiar with.
Alec Soth:
Alec Soth studies identity through his portraiture with some of his books being entitled 'Broken Days', 'Dog Days Bogota' and 'Sleeping by the Mississippi'. Most of Soth's works study regional identity and appear almost like a polaroid picture due to the hue and saturation of the colours; as a result Soth's works evoke an almost nostalgic feeling in the audience.
Richard Avedon:
Avedon is a portrait photographer who focuses mainly in the black and white genre. The three images below are featured in a series entitled 'In the American West'. Like Soth, Richard Avedon studies regional identity, specifically in this series, and evokes a series of questions within an audience. The black and white appears to have been used to exaggerate the forms of the human body in the portraiture but could also symbolise something more deeply about how skin colour is irrelevant.
Portraiture Image Bank -
Matthieu Bourel:
Dan Mountford:
Dan Mountford uses the medium of photography but focuses on a technique referred to as 'Double Exposure'.
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