Mood Board (Environmental Portraiture)

This was just a simple mood board that I have created looking at environmental portraits. I have looked at a classical example, in the form of August Sander as well as more contemporary studies from Jonathan Bielaski and Anthony Kurtz. The main concept of environmental portraits is to photograph a person in their natural environment, this has the effect of giving a whole volume of information to the viewer other than just the subject and their clothes.  You get to build up a much more in-depth relationship with the subject, getting to understand a little more about what makes them who they are. You can often see a relationship between the subject and their environment, there are things in the environment that are represented in the subject and vise versa. This works very well for the keyword of this project, with more structure than simple portraits or landscapes it allows the environment to be studied and linked to a subject.

Sander’s work is the real starting point for this type of environmental portraiture, there were similar works to this but this the classic example and where the movement came from. His images are always composed well, he has the subject look directly at the camera and stand in a pose that shows off who they are. Their outfits are an essential part of the images. The Soldier shows the youthfulness of this man who is ready to experience war. Taken in a winter hamlet this is clearly not his home, he shows no connection to the location, he is simply posted there for what ever reason. His other images are in a very high contrast, this gives an amazing amount of detail to the faces, clothes and surrounding of the subjects. The detail gives a fantastic perspective of the subject, you really feel like they are standing right in front of you, staring into your eyes. There is a connection made to these people who are all likely dead now, this is what his photography was excellent at doing, making you feel a connection to these people who you will never meet, and likely will never know the names of.

Bielaski’s work is a more modern take on Sander’s. He travels to locations with his subjects and set up photos using lights and his camera almost as if it was in a studio. He uses a camera that can capture 100MP in a single photograph, this incredible detail has the same effect as Sander’s high contrast. You get to see the details in a subject’s face and clothes making it seem like you are simply looking through a window at them. Bielaski also seems to have used HDR for his images, further increasing the detail and information available to the viewer in the photograph. Almost looking like animations his images are highly manipulated, and although it makes the images look very impressive it draws away from the subject a little, the viewer does not focus on the content as much because they are dazzled with these fantastic colours.

Kurtz’s work in the mood board is kind of a mix between Sander’s and Bielaski’s. He still has high contrast to the images but they are not over the top with excessively vibrant colours, the bright colours that are seen in some of the images are a result of the subject being powder paint which in its self it very vibrant. His images are a mixture of having the subjects look at the camera and not having them look at the camera, this works well depending on the different photographs. The one of the group of people works well despite there being no specific single subject, the mass of people lends itself well to the chaos in this scene. His depictions of his subjects work well because they do not seem forced or over bearing, you see the subject and plenty of the background to give context to the subject.