Portraiture
What is a portrait?
A portrait is a painting, drawing, photograph, or engraving of a person, especially one depicting only the face or head and shoulders. A portrait can capture a persons story, wether this is in a photograph or a painting lots of emotion can be captured in a portrait I think you can really see someones personality through a portrait.The portrait itself doesn't even need to really look exactly like the sitter as long as it is gives an impression of them. 'Portraiture is a very old art form going back at least to ancient Egypt, where it flourished from about 5,000 years ago. Before the invention of photography a painted, sculpted, or drawn portrait was the only way to record the appearance of someone. But portraits have always been more than just a record. They have been used to show the power, importance, virtue, beauty, wealth, taste, learning or other qualities of the sitter.
Selfie
Selfie is slang for Self-Portrait. It is used today to infer a photographic self-portrait taken on a mobile device and shared via social media. In 2013, "Selfie" was word of the year in the Oxford English Dictionary. The inclusion of front facing cameras on smart phones and the popularity of social media sites like Instagram and Snapchat have made the posting of Selfies increasingly popular as a form of photographic self-expression.
There aren't rules when it comes to taking a 'selfie' , the photo could be half the face or even just a close up of an eye or the mouth - this would still count as a selfie. In a selfie you control the emotion you could be smiling or look straight on with no emotion, selfies like portraits can tell peoples stories and show their personalities depending on how they go about taking their selfie.
There aren't rules when it comes to taking a 'selfie' , the photo could be half the face or even just a close up of an eye or the mouth - this would still count as a selfie. In a selfie you control the emotion you could be smiling or look straight on with no emotion, selfies like portraits can tell peoples stories and show their personalities depending on how they go about taking their selfie.
Lee Friedlander - reflective selfie
Friedlander loves mirrors, and his self-portraits often depend on reflections. At the same time, mirrors in Friedlander’s pictures aren’t the straightforward reflection of reality that the Saint Réal epigraph seems to celebrate. Friedlander wrote that “the camera is not merely a reflecting pool and the photographs are not exactly the mirror, mirror on the wall that speaks with a twisted tongue.” Friedlander knows his mirrors obscure as much as they reveal, often comically so.
His images are simple but impactful, especially because mirror selfies like these weren't ever really done at this time. I chose the three images below as I like how they kind of have a story attached to them, for example the first one you can barley see Friedlander and the dominant thing in the photo is the the sign that says 'merry Christmas' however it is missing a few letters. This gives the photo some character and a bit of a storyline. I like how the reflected selfie of Friedlander is the first thing you look at when viewing the photo but it doesn't consume the whole image, its very subtle.
His images are simple but impactful, especially because mirror selfies like these weren't ever really done at this time. I chose the three images below as I like how they kind of have a story attached to them, for example the first one you can barley see Friedlander and the dominant thing in the photo is the the sign that says 'merry Christmas' however it is missing a few letters. This gives the photo some character and a bit of a storyline. I like how the reflected selfie of Friedlander is the first thing you look at when viewing the photo but it doesn't consume the whole image, its very subtle.
Reflective selfie by me
For my examples I decided to mix up different reflective surfaces, as you can see I used a window to capture my reflection I like this photo because it also incorporates the reflection of the trees behind, and also the inside of the building. I also like the middle photo because I stood far back from the mirror, this makes the 'selfie' the centre of the photo still but there's also lots more adding too it. Its not the nicest surrounding but it adds character to the image. Lastly the first image is one of my favourites, I like how the mirror I used creates a fisheye effect, my face is not in the photo
Daido moriyama 1997 - shadow selfies
I chose to look at the work of Daido Moriyama for my shadow selfie inspiration. I like his work because it is simple but nice to look at, I like how in all his photos he incorporates something else other than just the shadow for example the dogs in the first image or the table with the tea cup on in the second. It adds a story to his work and he manages to incorporate his shadow selfie to fit nicely into the image. I really like the first image with the dogs, because his shadow fits perfectly in between the two dogs laying down its almost symmetrical. I also like how the shadow of the fence is shown it adds structure to the image.
Shadow selfie by me
For my shadow selfie examples I decided to incorporate my shadow into different landscapes, as shown in the first and last image. I decided to stand quite far back to do this, this made the shadow extend giving the impression I had reallyyy long legs, I like how there is a background for my shadow of the trees and leaves.
Richard Hamilton - obscured selfie
I chose to look at the work of Richard Hamilton for my obscured selfie inspiration. I chose his work because I like how simply obscured it is. You can still see how face very clearly meaning we can see his facial expressions giving the image more character. Most of the time he positions himself so that he is face on to the camera, however the last image where he is side on and we really only see his eye makes it more impactful. I like that the paint does not abstract this face so much that he is unrecognisable.
Obscured selfie by me
For my obscured selfie I chose not to completely distort or cover my face, like in Hamiltons work, but instead strategically covered parts of my face to still give it that obscured feel. For the first image I covered the majority of my face making my eyebrows the main feature.
Myra Greene
Character Recognition series
'In Character Recognition, Greene adopts the wet-plate collodion process, a 19th-century photographic method that was implicated in the history of colonialism and slavery and used as tool for ethnographic classification. If ethnographic photography was at times aimed at creating a typological record of racial physiognomy, Greene amplifies and examines these preoccupations by photographing her own nose, lips, ears, and skin—which she describes as “the features of race”—as if dismembered from the rest of her body.' - museum of contemporary photography
Greene's work is impactful and thought provoking, it links to themes of identity and character. The close up shots of different facial features is done to draw closely on the
My examples
To begin this task I took a series of close up images of members of my class. I tried to get as close to different facial features as possible like in Greene's work.
Edits to black and white
Darkroom edits
I then had the images above printed and began the work in the darkroom. In the darkroom I chose to stick with one photo as it came out better than all the others. To make them more like Greenes work I put tape and tracing paper directly on the the photographic paper, this then came up on the actual image that I placed on top.
VALERIE KABIS
Light and Shadow
Kabis uses light and shadows to create intense though provoking images. The blurring of the images adds an obscured and abstract side to her photos.
Above are the three images of Kabis's work that I chose to look at . Her work is very intriguing and interesting to look at as it is slightly obscured as she has blurred them. This makes the shadows created on the models become less sharp and clean and more ghost like and surreal, Kabris has also enhanced the contrast a lot making the shadows come out much darker so they appear as big shapes and not clear defined shadows for example the firs image.
Unedited Images I took for this task below
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I began by taking portrait images of some of my classmates, but made sure we were in complete darkness apart from a a single light. For some of the images I just used a phone torch I like how this created a subtle light and only lit up part of the face. I also used a big light which you can see in some of the images where the light is much more intense and covers more go the face, creating bigger shadows.
I prefer the images using the phone light personally, even though they don't resemble Kabis's work exactly I think they have a When editing my images I made sure to stick closely to Kabis's techniques of high contrast strictly black and white style. However my images are quite far off of hers as I did not make them blurry, they are much more crisp and sharp and the shadows do not look as obscured like in her images. But I do still like the images I took I feel they do have that eerie feel that Kabis has in her images. When editing I upped the contrast a lot to make the parts with the light on as bright as possible and the shadow parts as dark as possible. |
First response edits
David Bailey - box of pin ups
David Bailey is an English fashion photographer best known for his images of celebrities, models, and musicians.
His series 'Box of Pin Ups' displays an array of different celebrities from different industries. Each image depicts a different aspect of the persons persona or personality, this is done through a number of techniques that Bailey pays very close attention too. The techniques he uses include the lighting, the clothing, the pose the person is in, the composition, and the colour palette. For example the first image of Andy Warhol, he is an artist and as you can see Bailey has positioned him in a very clever way. He is almost peering down the camera positioned in a way that looks like when you are looking at a painting he looking at us like we are a piece of art . The second image is of Jean Shrimpton who is a supermodel, in the image she comes across very angelic as . She is also looking way above and no were near the camera, the is t symbolic because she is such a big celebrity she is unobtainable to everyone else, especially people like us.
First response examples unedited
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To begin this task I started to take portrait images of my classmates and made them pose in different ways for the camera, trying to convey personality traits or emotions like in Baileys work.
To do this I used two very bright lights and a white background to give it the crisp stylish feel that Baileys work has. I got lily to do a couple of different poses, for example I got her to look upwards and to the side as I shot looking up at her this was inspired by Baileys image of Jean Shrimpton ( middle image above by Bailey). This makes her look more innocent and angle like. Another pose I got her too do was put her hands up to the camera almost like she was reaching or gripping the front of the camera, I like how by moving her arm up it placed a shadow over her face giving it a moody kind of vibe to it contrasting with the angelic like shot of her looking up. I also got her to sort of how her face like she was leaning on something I feel this gives an innocent almost childish vibe to the photo. Editing the images I then went into photoshop and edited my images so that they resembled Baileys work. I upped the brightness to make sure the background was completely white almost as if it looked over exposed. I enhanced the contrast swell to pull out the darker details, so that they really stand out against the bright white. |
Edited versions
George town
Documentary Portrait photography
Lewis Khans 'Georgetown' project is a series of images telling the story of south London resident George and his life. A friend, a neighbour, a familiar face in the street that Khan passed everyday.
Here are three images that I took from the series, I picked these ones out of them all because they all individually tell a story but as a collective tell it even better. I really like the images of his belongings it gives a clearer insight into who he is, the image of him individually are focused on just him and who he is you can gather a lot from them even with not much context. The images are simple, there is no complex lighting or background instead its clean and fresh and very natural.
Around school - documentary
For this task we were asked to go around school and create a series of images inspired by the george town documentary series. To do this i went around and asked members of staff if i could take some photos of them just doing their job, and images of their surroundings of things that relate to them, and then a portrait image of them. I chose to ask the DT technician, a memebr of the canteen staff, and the librarian. Below is slideshows of all the images taken of them.
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Librarian
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I then moved on and chose a few images out of all the ones i took and edited them. As you can see below i chose three from my images of the DT technician, the workshop is very colourful with so many tools surrounding him as he worked. I chose these three images as i think they give a good insight into him and what he does, i chose the image of him working, his tools, and then a picture of him looking directly in the camera. When editing i increased the saturation just a little bit to make the colours of the tools pop a bit more.
I also chose to edit the images of the canteen lady, i decided to make these ones black and white because it gives the images a clean sleek feel. I chose those three images with the same thought process for the DT technician, they incorporate everything.
I also chose to edit the images of the canteen lady, i decided to make these ones black and white because it gives the images a clean sleek feel. I chose those three images with the same thought process for the DT technician, they incorporate everything.
Edits
At home response
We were then asked to create a series of george town inspired images but at home. I chose to photograph my popa (grandpa) as you can see below. I chose to photograph him because i think he has many different cool aspects to him, hes not your average 77 year old. He works in a clothing store on brick lane and has a great sense of style that has influenced how my dad dresses (his son) and how my brother dresses (his grandson). You can see this in the second last image in the slideshow that shows them all together.
Contact sheets of all images below
My Response 1
Lighting
For this task we were focusing on lighting and how it effects the photo, for the first part I took images using natural lighting outside. The sun was out so the images came out nicely as the sun was shining on her face, the sunlight creates a happy bright looking photo.
Natural lighting
For the second part of the task I took images using colourful more intense lighting, using a tungsten light and colour gels to go over the lights. The first image below with no colour on it is just the tungsten light, as you can see the lighting is quite warm and orange. I then proceeded to use the colour gels this created different colours to be cast over the models face, for some of them the colour on the face is different to the one in the background. This lighting created big shadows across the face.
Colour lighting
Ben Watts
The Big Up Portrait
Ben Watts is a British photographer who creates collages of photos he captures.
Above are the images I was drawn too by him
My first example
Second example
Independent development
Below are the images I used to create the collage
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For my independent development I chose to combine the work by Lewis Khan (George Town) and the collage work by Ben Watts. Both their work is similar in the way that it can tell a story and you can gather information from it, I liked this a lot and wanted to bring it into my work. Originally I wanted to continue with the docu series I did of my popa from the work inspired by 'George Town' but due to covid I was unable too see him. However during the Christmas holidays I went abroad to Saint Lucia, I took this as an opportunity to take some photos that I could use for my independent development. Saint Lucia is full of bright colours, interesting people and beautiful landscapes, a perfect place to take a series of images. My first thought was too just take a documentary series of a day I had whilst I was away but I later realised that it could look much better as a collage like Ben Watt's work.
So I gathered a bunch of photos I took and printed them out, I also got stuff like the passport stamp to print out and put on my work. I decided to create a centre piece of the collage I made this out of coloured card and it represents the Saint Lucian flag. I added some writing on top of masking tape too relate to Watt's work, I chose to write the Saint Lucian motto that I researched. I chose the images i did because they're bright and colourful and bring the collage to life. One thing I would do different is when photographing the actual collage I did not have very good lighting, so you can't properly see how vibrant the images are. uI |
Below is an inspiration board , as you can see I want too use the collage technique Watts does and also use the documentary style portraiture photography that Lewis Khanns does in 'George Town'.
My work
As you can see the lighting is not very good therefore ruins the look of the piece as you can not see the vibrant colours .