nice post. i've come to understand that great portrait artists don't have much more technical skill than anyone else. as you mention, it's a matter of being able to make people feel comfortable, and to read into their characters just enough to bring out their uniqueness in the portrait. i also imagine that with your project, you now feel a certain intimacy with your community that you hadn't before.
Good points Mark. Yes, there is more needed in the way of technical knowledge when shooting landscapes for instance. It is mostly about noticing the moment when a certain look comes over their face, and avoiding any kind of awkward shyness. The point about intimacy with my community is something I hadn’t thought about before, but I think you are right.
I mention the intimacy only because of my own experiences, both shooting studio portraiture for a spell, and many years of street portraits. I found a deep intimacy in studying up close the creases and crags and minuscule imperfections that populated my subjects’ faces. I felt at times that I may have learned more about them in those few minutes or hours than their closest intimates would ever know. Those around them day after day stop looking. They “think” they have already seen what they know. Portrait faces were a new terrain for me. I found that intimacy surprising. I can’t look at any of the portraits I took without recalling my thoughts as I navigated their facial terrains.
As always, an interesting post, Andrew. Portraiture is an important subject in photography but also one of the most difficult ones, I find. I don’t make many portraits. Mostly from my children (when they allow me and feel like it) but very few of family and friends. As you say, people in general get nervous when they are asked to pose. Is something unconscious, in my view. I think is the scare of seeing oneself and maybe don’t agree with it.
I wonder if in some way, lenses can ‘deform’ a bit a face. Not deformation in the literally sense but more ‘little bits and pieces’ that can appear different to someone. In any case, there is a scare that is ‘human’. I bought last week a book about the famous Harcourt studio in Paris. For the ones that know this studio, you will know that if one was photographed by Harcourt you need to be an important person. Portraiture at the highest level, I would say. Not that we should be all ‘Harcourtists’ because this is impossible but only to say that it is not an easy task and that the studio and the equipment matters if one wants to do it right. In my opinion the best portraits are the ones that I made instantly without the person realising that it has been photographed. When my book will arrive I will write a little post about it.
You hit a lot of nails on their heads here. Taking a good portrait image of somebody we know or love will take on an importance we couldn’t expect, perhaps sooner than we imagine.
Also, love that you started meeting people in their workplace. That’s a great way to get portraits done with that special flair in it. Don’t like the idea of people being defined by their work, but I also wouldn’t say it isn’t important to who they are. Cheers~
Thank you Glenn.
Thank you Glenn.
nice post. i've come to understand that great portrait artists don't have much more technical skill than anyone else. as you mention, it's a matter of being able to make people feel comfortable, and to read into their characters just enough to bring out their uniqueness in the portrait. i also imagine that with your project, you now feel a certain intimacy with your community that you hadn't before.
Good points Mark. Yes, there is more needed in the way of technical knowledge when shooting landscapes for instance. It is mostly about noticing the moment when a certain look comes over their face, and avoiding any kind of awkward shyness. The point about intimacy with my community is something I hadn’t thought about before, but I think you are right.
I mention the intimacy only because of my own experiences, both shooting studio portraiture for a spell, and many years of street portraits. I found a deep intimacy in studying up close the creases and crags and minuscule imperfections that populated my subjects’ faces. I felt at times that I may have learned more about them in those few minutes or hours than their closest intimates would ever know. Those around them day after day stop looking. They “think” they have already seen what they know. Portrait faces were a new terrain for me. I found that intimacy surprising. I can’t look at any of the portraits I took without recalling my thoughts as I navigated their facial terrains.
As always, an interesting post, Andrew. Portraiture is an important subject in photography but also one of the most difficult ones, I find. I don’t make many portraits. Mostly from my children (when they allow me and feel like it) but very few of family and friends. As you say, people in general get nervous when they are asked to pose. Is something unconscious, in my view. I think is the scare of seeing oneself and maybe don’t agree with it.
I wonder if in some way, lenses can ‘deform’ a bit a face. Not deformation in the literally sense but more ‘little bits and pieces’ that can appear different to someone. In any case, there is a scare that is ‘human’. I bought last week a book about the famous Harcourt studio in Paris. For the ones that know this studio, you will know that if one was photographed by Harcourt you need to be an important person. Portraiture at the highest level, I would say. Not that we should be all ‘Harcourtists’ because this is impossible but only to say that it is not an easy task and that the studio and the equipment matters if one wants to do it right. In my opinion the best portraits are the ones that I made instantly without the person realising that it has been photographed. When my book will arrive I will write a little post about it.
Thank you Luz.
You hit a lot of nails on their heads here. Taking a good portrait image of somebody we know or love will take on an importance we couldn’t expect, perhaps sooner than we imagine.
Also, love that you started meeting people in their workplace. That’s a great way to get portraits done with that special flair in it. Don’t like the idea of people being defined by their work, but I also wouldn’t say it isn’t important to who they are. Cheers~
Thank you hanz.