Staying true to my plan, I photographed my step-dad; a Chartered Accountant who works and almost lives in his office. The company he owns himself and tries to keep exterior costs to a minimum, meaning he tries to do the majority of work that a company needs himself. This image displaying him at a desk really coincides with the environmental portrait theme as the model is in his own domain.

I tried to stay loyal to the style of environmental portraits as I instructed the model to maintain a sombre and melancholy facial expression to create this sense of ambiguity. I thought by getting a close-up shot, I was able to depict the stress upon his face; especially his eyes as they glare at the viewer, revealing their own story of what they think its like to be in their environment. The main light source is artificial and rather white, which helps portray the model’s face as pale, connoting a worried and confused impression. The secondary light source is that of the computer as it reflects against the model’s face, drawing our attention to his face like the computer draws the model’s attention, reinforcing how much work ties down the model. Furthermore, the model holds the mouse in his right hand, demonstrating he is in fact at work and does work.

As it was an environmental portrait, I thought it would be important to capture his accountancy qualifications in the background with the model in the foreground. Despite his extremely prestigious qualifications, he still depicts a sombre and unhappy mood, proving that there’s more to life than just work. Due to the positioning of the lighting and the way I positioned his chair, there is a shadow created in the background, almost hanging over him, acting as a burden much like work is. Furthermore, there is a small quantity of shadow on his face, portraying how work has a heavy impact upon adult life and that your occupation can slowly take over who you are.

A hidden feature within the photograph is the clock in the background, which rather obviously, tells the time. It shows 4:51 PM, nine minutes until he gets to leave; a time that most people who work in a banking occupation leave their job. This time adds story to the image as my step-dad would’ve been at work from nine AM and demonstrates the long hours he puts in, adding further strain to his facial expression. I thought that by including the clock which depicts the time ‘9 to 5’, reflected the time period that my step-dad works. However, due to the neutral look, we cannot tell whether he is excited to leave or not, relating back to this sense of ambiguity.