Who: I decided that I will take images of shopkeepers at their counters at various shops/ stalls.
Where: I will be visiting the market in town as well as the fish market.
Why: I believe that the best environmental portraits show the subjects livelihood and small factors in these images can show how they feel about their jobs and lives as a whole. I also believe that the lighting in these areas will create some good opportunities for photos, especially the fluorescent lighting in the fish market, the lighting is a very cold tone there and will help compliment pink skin tones.
An environmental portrait is a portrait taken of a person or people in a situation that they live in and a place that says something about who they are. It is often a place of work, rest or play. Images which are quite natural, yet a little staged by the subject making eye contact with the camera. They are making a connection with the camera.
Mood Board:
This mood board displays the general sense of what environmental portraiture is. They all follow a general theme by being staged and the subject making eye contact with the camera. There is a sense of place with the people being in their work, there is a sense of connection by the photographer letting us into the life of the person.
Fibonacci Spiral:
While the rule of thirds is the most widely known composition rule, there’s another principal that plays a big role in composing images with that wow factor; the golden ratio. While its basis does lie in math and numbers, the golden ratio is really about what the human eye sees, and composing an image that immediately demands attention. This photo also follows the Fibonacci spiral, it follows the composition which makes this a very effective and balanced image.
The golden ratio is actually a number. It’s found by taking a line (or sometimes another shape) and dividing it into two parts. When a line or shape is divided into two parts based on the golden ratio, it will be divided in such a way that, if you divided the length of the longest section by the length of the smallest section, it would be equal to the original length of the shape divided by the longest section.
I personally find that the image is over saturated in certain areas, while this adds a sense of drama to the image, i personally find that it leaves the image looking rather tacky. While I dislike the amount of saturation in the photo due to the result looking rather messy, i like the sense of seriousness/drama that it creates. I like the background elements of the photo more than the foreground. While it is more cluttered than the foreground, it has a lot of negative white space which i find balances out the background of he image as a whole. i believe it also addresses the issue of over saturation and i believe that if there was more negative white space in the foreground it would result in an overall more balanced image.
Technical:
It looks as though the image was taken using a small aperture since a lot of the image is in focus. It looks as though a rather long shutter speed was used due to the color depth as well as the fact that it looks as though the photo is taken using a small aperture and so a long shutter speed would be required in order for the photo to be properly exposed. The photo overall looks to be rather warm in color temperature.
Visual:
The photo features some strong colors, particularly some strong oranges as well as accentuating the olive tones in his skin helping to add to the dramatic, evil look of the ex Nazi war criminal.
Arnold Newman was an american photographer who primarily worked in portraiture however also occasionally created abstract still life composure’s. More importantly however he coined the phrase and is the founder of environmental portraiture. This usually features a subject looking directly into the camera with the background being pivotal to either their identity or livelihood. There are however photos which don’t follow this pattern and his photos rarely include action shots. These photos are a great way of portraying ones personality and/or interests and the facial expressions are a good way of showing whether or not they enjoy their work/home life and so even a lack of emotion in a photo is able to portray strong emotions.
Due to the time period of his photography most of his work is done with film, although he had access to high end film cameras and so had the benefits of high quality images and glass while still having the subjective ‘benefits’ of film photography such as the light Gaussian grain in darker areas and interesting interactions with light when using a large aperture. The use of film also results in small imperfections in the image which I believe gives the photo more character as these markings are near impossible to accurately replicate digitally and are unique to the image. The majority of his images are done in black and white. I believe this allows for greater use of contrast and tones and results in images that look more structured and sharper. This creates a strong sense of drama in his images.
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.
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.
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.
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. The term is most frequently used of a genre of photography.
The surroundings or background is a key element in environmental portraiture, and is used to convey further information about the person being photographed. The details that convey the message from the surroundings can often be quite small and still be significant. The key seems to be in the symbolism expressed by various elements in the background; for instance, a baseball cap may not tell you much about your subject (unless he or she is a baseball player), but a chef’s hat gives you a lot more detail about who he is and what he does.
“There are many things that are very false about photography when it is accepted without question. You must recognize and interpret it as you would any other art form, and then maybe it is a little more than real.” – Arnold Newman
Arnold Newman (1918-2006) was an American photographer known for his environmental portraits or artists and politicians. He was also known for his carefully composed abstract still life photographs.
Newman is often credited with being the first photographer to use so-called 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. A musician for instance might be photographed in their recording studio or on stage, a Senator or other politician in their office or a representative building. Using a large-format camera and tripod, he worked to record every detail of a scene.
The photograph below shows one of Arnold Newman’s works, we can see he has his subject clearly engaging with the camera and how they are surrounded by something that represents them and it has been clearly composed of how they are sitting and where they have been placed in the frame which is something I will aim to do in my own photoshoot with inspiration from Arnold Newman.
Arnold Newman
My Own Responses
For these photoshoots I went out and captured people in their working environments, this enabled me to have them surrounded by things that may represent their life and their work such as Arnold Newman did.
Contact Sheet of shootContact Sheet of shoot
These are two contact sheet of my own experiments and photographs I have taken under the name of environmental portraits. I went out and photographed people in their work place or their environments, I had some people posed more naturally by having them carry on with what they were doing but also having them try look towards the camera slightly to engage with it there and some more unnatural by having them fully engage with the camera by getting them to look directly at the lens. Some photographs came out better than others as some are too over-exposed or under-exposed and others are not completely in focus however there were some photographs which I feel turned out successful and some which I feel would be good to experiment with with turning them black and white from being influenced by people such as Mary-Ellen Mark and Arnold Newman.
Edited Contact SheetEdited Contact Sheet
This shows how I began to sort through and pick out which photographs would work for experiments with things such as placing into black and white and as good photographs and which would not be so successful or useful.
Edits and Outcomes
For the editing of the photographs I kept it simple by only adjusting the photos into black and white or maybe adjusting the brightness to help with the transition into black and white such as Arnold Newman’s photographs were. I have chosen what I feel to be my 5 best outcomes of this photoshoot as it shows my subjects engaging with the camera and the photographs are clear and work well. Below is the edited and unedited versions of my photographs.
A portrait is a representation and the showing of a particular person. A self portrait is a portrait done by the artist of them self.
Portraits can be dated back to the Ancient Egyptians from about 5,000 years ago where they began to be used and created.
Before photography was introduced, portraits were painted, sculpted or drawn as this was the only way to record the way that someone looked. Portraits were used to record people in history as well as represent someone’s wealth, status or beauty.
Historically, portrait paintings have primarily memorialized the rich and powerful. Over time, however, it became more common for middle-class patrons to commission portraits of their families and colleagues. Today, portraits are still commissioned by governments, corporations, groups, clubs, and individuals.
faiyum mummy portrait of a young man Munich
Renaissance Turn of Portraits
The Renaissance marked a turning point in the history of portraiture. Portraits—both painted and sculpted—were given an important role in Renaissance society and valued as objects, and as depictions of earthly success and status.
Godfrey Kneller | Samuel Sandy | 1720 Renaissance Era
1800’s Photography
The invention of photography can be credited to Louis Daguerre, who first introduced the concept to the French Academy of Sciences in 1839. That same year, Robert Corneliusproduced what is considered the first photographic self-portrait.
Robert Cornelius | Self Portrait | 1839
In addition to portraits of famous people and family members, portrait photography became a way to preserve history. 90 Native American delegates visited Washington D.C. in 1857 to conduct treaty and trade negotiations. While they were there, they were photographed by Samuel Cohner and Julian Vannerson.
Camera’s For Everyone (1900 – 1984)
Photography became more common when the Eastman KodakCompanyintroduced 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.
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 thePhoto-Secessionmovement. This movement sought to make photography less commercial and more of an art form.
Alfred Stieglitz | Portrait of Miss N | 1903
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 35mm Lecia camera in 1925, and the first flash bulbs between 1927 and 1930, which allowed the journalist true flexibility in taking pictures.
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.
Documentary Photography
The 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.
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.
