Daily Archives: November 3, 2018

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AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Environmental portraits

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Arnold Newman

Arnold Newman was an American photographer, mostly known to be the one who flourished ‘environmental portraiture’, in which the photographer places the subject in a carefully controlled setting to capture the essence of the individual’s life and work. Newman normally captured his subjects in their most familiar surroundings with representative visual elements showing their professions and personalities. Even without knowing who the subject is, a viewer can identify the artist in his studio, or a musician at the keyboard, or a president at his desk. Newman’s best-known images were in black and white, although he often photographed in colour. His portraits ranged from celebrities, artists to politicians. Newman insisted that a picture of a celebrity or politician by himself wouldn’t be as meaningful as one taken in the subject’s workplace. The viewers can tell that his portraits are planned because of the carefully composed environment and the posed subject.

His style

Although his style evolved, backgrounds always played a leading role in his photographs. Through his environmental painters’ portraits you can see how he carefully chooses backgrounds to fit with the style of painting these painters created. Most of Newman’s personal works were the result of long social interaction with the subject. After getting to know the subject in a broad way, the photographs began to happen. Newman captured images that he had in mind from the beginning, which was the essence of his photographic style. In all his environmental portraits, Newman included representative elements of the subject’s profession. Sometimes Newman’s photographs have different compositional approach in which the subjects is close to the corners of the frame. This was probably a reflection of the great care he took to show as much as possible of the subject’s surroundings.

My response

To respond to Arnold Newman’s photography work, I captured images of people in their familiar surroundings or their workplace. Since Newman is best known for his black and white images I decided to edit the final outcomes on photoshop by applying the black and white filter and slightly adjusting the contrast and brightness. A large amount of background can be seen through my images as this was an important aspect in his photographs to show the viewers the subjects representative elements. I think these images replicate Arnold Newman’s photographic style since they are black and white environmental portraits which have been captured using his techniques. However, to improve I could have photographed more people in their working environments and taken pictures of subjects that I’m not familiar with.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation

Arnold Newman

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ARNOLD NEWMAN

He was born on March 3rd, 1918 and died June 6th, 2006. He was an american photographer who was noted for his environmental portraits of artists and politicians. He studied painting and drawing at the University of Miami, but he was unable to continue after 2 years as he couldn’t afford it, so he moved to Philadelphia to work for a studio making portraits. In 1945 he opened his own business in Miami Beach but in 1946 he relocated his business in New York and also worked as a freelance photographer.  Newman photographed places in essence of an individual’s life. He captured the subjects in their most familiar places to represent them and show their profession and personality. Newman said “the surroundings had to add to the composition and the understanding of the person. No matter who the subject was, it was going to be an interesting photograph.”

These 3 images are some of my favourites by Newman because they are simple but speak very loudly. As they are showing what the subject loves to do, you can get to know and understand what the people are like by having access to the hobbies/jobs to get an idea what sort of person they are. The images are very simple but it makes your eyes attract towards the main subject of the photo first to see their facial expressions and then you move onto the surroundings as your mind is trying to figure out why they look like that? why they are set in these surroundings? Such a simple image having many of questions and query makes it interesting for the viewer as they are constantly trying to figure out what the meaning of the image is.

EXPERIMENTING 

In this series of photos I have photographed the subject in his working environment. These photos are representing the type of work Newman produced, images showing different people’s personalities and passions. With the subject looking directly into the camera with a neutral face it allows the viewer to make a connection between them and the image, as the subject is looking directly at you in some sorts. As I was shooting outside I had to use a faster shutter speed so that less light would be let in and my photo wouldn’t become over exposed, I also used a manual setting so I could adjust what was in and out of focus. When editing these images I did very little as I didn’t want the editing to over power the reasoning behind these images, so I put them into black and white and this really helped show the facial expression on the subject and their passions, as the viewer had very little to engage with, which is good as they can focus in on the main subject and the meaning behind the images, but due to the simplicity of my images it doesn’t make them interesting to look at. Overall I feel this shoot was a learning experience, due to the simple images I have produced. Also the quality of my images aren’t great due to the poor focusing caused by me either moving the camera as I was taking the photo or the focus not being sharp enough.

AO1 Develop Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

portrait mood board

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Portrait photography is a photograph of a person or group of people that captures the personality of the subject by using effective lighting, backdrops, and poses. A photographer’s goal is to take a carefully decided photograph of a person’s distinguishing facial features, while capturing the person’s attitude, identity and personality. Frequently, portraits are taken for special occasions, such as weddings or school events.

Uncategorized

Portraiture

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1. TRADITIONAL PORTRAIT.

Traditional or Classical portraiture would refer to an image where face is the predominant element. The purpose of the photograph is to depict visual representation of that person. Subject is expected to be looking directly at the camera. With what is described as a head-shot, two thirds or full body framing can be used

2. ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAIT.

The term Environmental Portrait refers to an image where the subject is photographed in person’s natural environment. For example, a worker photographed at the construction zone, teacher in the classroom, sculptor in a sculpture studio and so on. Surroundings are used to compliment the subject and to emphasize his character. Subject and setting are chosen by the photographer.

4. CANDID PORTRAIT.

A candid portrait is taken without a subject expecting or acknowledging the photographer. This style used in photo journalism, travel photography, street photography and event photography. As opposed to an environmental portrait this image is captured at the moment rather than set up.

5. GLAMOUR PORTRAIT.

The term Glamour Portrait refers to portraits where emphasis is given to highlight the sexy romantic appeal of the subject.

6. LIFESTYLE PORTRAIT

The term Lifestyle Portrait refers to portraits where emphasis is given to suggest the “style of living” of the individuals depicted. Technically it is a combination of environmental portrait and candid portrait. More weight is given to communicate the feeling of life experience of the subject. Style has numerous implications in commercial and fine art photography. Editorial, fashion, pharmaceutical, and food industries often use lifestyle images to evoke emotions in viewers by depiction of desired life styles. It is common to see this style used in wedding and family portrait photography as well.

7. SURREAL PORTRAIT.

Surreal Portraits are created to emphasize the other reality. A depiction of a person’s interpreted subconscious mind. Surrealism is an art movement started in the early 1920‘s and still alive and well. In photography tricks and special effects are used to achieve a surreal look. 

8. CONCEPTUAL PORTRAIT.

Conceptual Portrait refers to images where concept adds a fourth dimension. The hidden meaning of the concept will leave the viewer guessing as it is often open for interpretation. Conceptual artists generally get offended when asked what did they mean in their photograph. It is the job of the viewer to decide. Conceptual Portraits are often used in advertising photography but concepts are much easier to understand.

9. ABSTRACT PORTRAIT.

Abstract portraits are created with a purpose of creating art and not based on realistic representation of a person. Collage or digital manipulation is often used.

AO2 Explore Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Arnold Newman

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Arnold Newman was an american photographer that was born in 1918 and that died in 2006. Newman is often credited with being one of the first to experiment with environmental portraiture, in which the subject is put into a controlled setting to carefully show their life and their work. Newman was also a photography teacher.

Arnold Newman | Portrait of Alfred Krupp | 1963

Newman took this image in 1963. It is an image of Alfred Krupp. The image makes Alfred look menacing and intimidating. This is done due a few different things. Firstly, it is done through the pose and how Alfred is sitting. By having Alfred leaning forward slightly with his fingers interlocked and below his chin makes him seem very evil and as though he has power over you. Furthermore, contrast is used between the background and the foreground with a lot brighter colours in the background than the foreground. The fact that the darker part is in the foreground with Alfred makes the person viewing the image notice that he isn’t a very normal person, along with being quite ominous.

This portrait seems to have heavily used natural lighting. It seems to have used this kind of lighting to light up the background of the image. This is used to help create the contrast between the foreground and the background. From the light in the background you can tell that Newman wouldn’t have really been able to use a very low shutter speed as the background, especially at the top of the image would appear a lot brighter than it does. Other than using natural light, Newman likely would have used some sort of lamps to shine onto the sides of Alfred’s body. The use of these lamp would distinguish the outline of his suit instead of his body appearing a lot darker in colour. In this image, the colours in the foreground appear as though they have been altered to add even more contrast between the foreground and background, while the colours behind Alfred, in the background seem to be a lot less vibrant and instead are more bland and lighter. This may have been done to highlight the evil personality that Newman sees in Alfred.

This image shows a few different visual techniques. Firstly, Newman shows use of different tones throughout the image. This can be seen especially well in the foreground as the tone of the colours are a lot darker at the bottom rather than at the top. By using tone Newman has been able to show highlight a lot of detail in the texture of the metals in the foreground. Secondly, Newman has placed Alfred in an angle where repeating patterns are shown behind him, this can be seen with the natural light coming from the windows in the roof in the background and the natural light coming from the windows in the back wall. Thirdly, Newman has placed Alfred in front of a window. This window turns what could just be a flat surface, creates form in the image with a large 3D open space in the background.

Contextually, this image taken in 1963, created by Arnold Newman shows Alfred Krupp in front of a factory that he owned. When Alfred found out that Newman was Jewish he did not want him to take his portrait as he was a Nazi during the war. Though he did no longer want Arnold to take his picture, he eventually changed his mind and let him do it. The factory Alfred owned shown in the image behind him used slave labour from concentration camps to manufacture… . Due to these things that Newman found out about Alfred, he decided to try and take a portrait image of him acting evil, which is why he had him leaning forward with is fingers interlocked below his chin with a dark area around him in the foreground. Alfred was not happy with how Newman displayed him, though Newman was very happy and thought of it as him getting a small amount of revenge for the Jews.