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.
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.
It is a portrait where the subject is photographed within an environment that they are usually in, it could be a profession or a hobby. This type of portrait allows the photographer to show what type of person the subject it depending on their environment and it illuminates the their character. By the subject looking directly into the camera, it allows the viewer to feel a connection between the two sources. The environment is always used as a background and it can range from large and busy to small and simple, the background isn’t the main part of the image, its the subject themselves as they draw most of the attention towards themselves as they are telling the story behind the image.
EXPERIMENTATION
These are images I took when experimenting with environmental portraits. In some of these images I used flash to create a dramatic lighting effect. I also regularly changed the shutter speed which was dependent on how dark or light the background was. Some of my images where too exposed this is because my shutter speed was too slow and ISO was to high, which meant the camera was sensitive to the amount of light I was letting into the image, with the image being over exposed it made the image become more white than it was. My images have a wider range of variety, as I went to different environments in a school so this helped with me adjusting the manual settings on the camera. The meaning behind these images it to show the students and teachers in their everyday environment doing their work and where they are mostly seen. With these subject being put in their everyday environment it is easier for the viewer to make a connection and an understanding as the environment it relatable especially for sutdents.
M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Resources\Portraiture\TO DO
An environmental portrait is a portrait executed in the subject’s usual environment, such as in their home or workplace, and typically illuminates the subject’s life and surroundings.
Group Activity | Image Analysis
Arnold Newman | Portrait of Alfred Krupp | 1963
Emotional Response (how it makes you feel / initial reactions):
Technical:
Visual:
Conceptual:
Contextual :
You have 5 minutes to research this image and present your findings as a group…
Blog Post 1 :
define, describe and explain what an environmental portrait is
add a mood board grid of suitable images
include hyperlinks to suitable URLs to help you
add at least one video to create inter-activity on your blog
Blog Post 2 :
Choose either Arnold Newman or August Sander to write a CASE STUDY and create a blog post that includes….
a brief biography of the artist and their aims / intentions
Mood-board of key images
Select one key image and apply Technical | Visual | Contextual | Conceptual analysis
Add any other relevant research / insights
August Sander The Face of Our Time 1926August Sander The Face of Our Time 1926August Sander The Face of Our Time 1926Arnold Newman Igor Stravinsky (composer) 1946
Other environmental portraits to consider
Walker Evans Sharecropper Family 1936
Dorothea Lange Migrant Mother 1936
Sian Davey “Looking for Alice” 2012Alec Soth Sleeping by the Mississippi 2004James Nachtwey Rwanda 1995Michelle SankDavid GoldBlattAnthony Kurtz No Man’s Job series 2010
Resources to help you analyse and interpret the images…
Rule of thirds grid…useful for balance, symmetry and strong compositionsApply the Golden ratio, Fibonacci Sequence to an image (overlay / blend a template)Henri Cartier-Bresson and the use of “The Golden Triangle”
Remember to show your Photo-Shoot Planning and clearly explain :
who you are photographing
what you are photographing
when you are conducting the shoot
where you are working/ location
why you are designing the shoot in this way
how you are going to produce the images (lighting / equipment etc)
M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Resources\Portraiture\TO DO
Historical Purpose of Portraits
A portrait is a representation of a particular person. A self-portrait is a portrait of the artist by the artist
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 thepower, importance, virtue, beauty, wealth, taste, learning or other qualities of the sitter.
Portraits have almost always been flattering, and painters who refused to flatter, such as William Hogarth, tended to find their work rejected. A notable exception was Francisco Goya in his apparently bluntly truthful portraits of the Spanish royal family.
Francisco Goya : Ferdinand VII of Spain, 1814
Photography 1800’s onwards
We may be used to selfies now, but it’s Robert Cornelius’s 1839 image that lays claim to the first self-portrait. Taken in Philadelphia, Cornelius sat for a little over one minute before covering the lens.
Julia Margaret Cameron & Children albumen print, 1857-1858
Cameras for Everyone (1900-84)
Photography became more common when the Eastman Kodak Company introduced the Kodak No. 1 camera in 1888. Kodak made photography easier for everyone by doing the developing and sending the reloaded camera and developed prints back to the customer. These cameras made photography more accessible to the general public. Their 1900 Brownie Box camera was the first mass market camera. The turn of the century also embraced photography as an art form. The Smithsonian Institution began collecting and exhibiting photography in 1896, and many galleries began to follow suit, exhibiting different photographers and their works.
Stieglitz and the Photo-Secession
This time period also introduced Alfred Stieglitz, one of the first people to become famous for making photography an art form. In 1902, he and a group of friends founded the Photo-Secession movement. This movement sought to make photography less commercial and more of an art form.
Photojournalism and the picture story vs Documentary (long-form) photography
Photojournalism really started to take shape when photographers could easily transport cameras into war zones. The “Golden Age of Photojournalism” is often considered to be roughly the 1930s through the 1950s. It was made possible by the development of the compact commercial 35mmLeica camera in 1925, and the first flash bulbs between 1927 and 1930, which allowed the journalist true flexibility in taking pictures.
For the first time, ordinary citizens could see the impact of the fighting right there in their newspaper. It was a pivotal moment in photography and it became more and more real between the Civil War and World War II.
Yet photojournalism is not just about war or photographers working the beat for a local newspaper. It’s much more than that. Photojournalism tells a story and it often does so in a single photograph. They evoke a feeling, whether its astonishment, empathy, sadness, or joy.
That is the mark of photojournalism; to capture that single moment in time and give viewers the sense that they’re part of it.
Documenting the PublicThe turn of the century continued to use portrait photography for documentary uses. In 1906 Lewis Hine was hired to document the conditions that child labor workers had to deal with in different factories throughout the U.S. His photographs were used to help pass child labor reforms, like the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which banned oppressive child labor.
Lewis Hine photograph of children in an Indiana Glass Factory
In 1914, the U.S. State Department began requiring photographs on all passports.
The stock market crash in 1929 led to the next round of documentary portraiture. In 1935, photographers were hired to document what was going on in the farmlands of America. The Resettlement Administration, which later became the Farm Security Administration, wanted to see through photographs how the farmers were living. The New Deal offered several programs for artists and photographers, such as the Works Progress Administration. People hired for the WPA documented life throughout America. One famous WPA photographer was Dorothea Lange, who profiled the plight of farmers in America.
‘Migrant Mother’ by Dorothea Lange, 1936
The Impact of War Photography
Roger Fenton was one of the first war photographers. He captured images of the Crimean War (1853–1856)
Put simply, photojournalism is about capturing verbs. This doesn’t mean simply taking an action photo. Communicating the verb is much more than that.
Stories are captured in slices while photojournalism strives to convey what is happening in one shot.
Although it is great when it happens, photojournalism isn’t about the best composition, or the best technical details, or a pretty subject.
Photojournalism is about showing the world a story of something that really happened.
“Bearing witness” is a phrase that comes to mind in regards to photojournalism.
Photojournalism allows the world to see through the eyes of the photographer for just a moment. When photojournalism is done right, that one moment conveys volumes of time.
Conveying the full story is part of environmental portraiture where the setting tells us as much about the subject as the subject themselves.
The emotion is often raw in photojournalism. The photographer is not directing the scene as a portrait or commercial photographer would. Instead, the best of them blend into the background and become a shadow figure (unlike the paparazzi). They are there to observe and capture, not become the story or interrupt it.
The photojournalist has a different attitude than other photographers and it’s necessary to capturing those memorable photos. And quite often, that single photo can become a call to action for the millions of people who see it.
Another vitally important part of photojournalism is accuracy. This means that what is in the frame is what happened.
The photojournalist is ethically bound not to change the story (though many fall short of this ideal).
Power lines should not be cloned out. More smoke must not be added to a fire scene. What was captured is how it should be. Sadly, the era of digital photography has made it easier than ever to manipulate reality.
The image should be a window into the event. At most, lighten the shadows a touch to see faces or sharpen the image a bit for clarity but do not change the essence of what you capture in the photo. If you do, you change the story.
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.
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.
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.
relating to the natural world and the impact of human activity on its condition.
PORTRAIT
/ˈpɔːtrət,ˈpɔːtreɪt/
noun
1.
a painting, drawing, photograph, or engraving of a person, especially one depicting only the face or head and shoulders.
What do environmental portraits do?
– they give context to the subject you’re photographing
– they give points of interest to shots (something you need to watch as you don’t want to distract from your subject too much)
– they help your subject relax
– they often give the viewer of your shots real insight into the personality and lifestyle of your subject
