Can beauty and identity be expressed in a portrait?

‘With every breath of nature’s depth, she was becoming more herself.’ – Angie Weiland-Crosby

Looking at the idea of self love I will focus on certain features of the body and encapsulate the beauty in each part focussing on the simple things. I will then link this or contrast with a piece of nature showing the natural beauty, building on these views to create a whole picture representing the journey of learning to love your individual features enabling a person to love there whole self naturally with nature connected. I am focusing on the simple things and natural beauty. I will look at how the environment is a part of us as humans. We are learning to take care of the environment so I will look at how the environment has enabled people to learn to look after themselves. By focussing on single features alongside nature we begin to appreciate the beauty found within. This can then be compared to the whole picture with people beginning to be comfortable with who they are and rebelling against societies stereotypes and learning to love themselves fully. The artists I have been inspired by are: Agnieszka Lepka who looks at the relation between nature and human being. She uses close up shots of human body parts, landscapes and everyday objects. Bill Brandt who incorporates the human body into a landscape, e.g. cliffs, beaches. Albert Renger-Patzsch who looks at natural landscapes and specific pieces of nature, focussing on texture and tone. And John Coplans who focusses on the human body. The abstract images of body features make the viewer question what they are looking at. For example, a picture of the human back. The image below is one from my photoshoot, focussing on the detail in human aspects. We can see it is a spine however the we are drawn in with intrigue to look at the detail within a common feature. Noticing the details in natural features creates individuality and uniqueness forming an identity for each individual person. No two people are likely to have the exact same details within their body features. This enables us to appreciate and love our differences as they make us who we are.

The ‘sublime’ has been debated in the field of the aesthetic for centuries. It has Latin origin and means something is set or raised high up. It is said to have qualities of greatness and intensity in both physical, metaphysical, moral, aesthetic and spiritual form. The sublime has become an expression for artists over the years. It was said ‘Aesthetics could not explain why one was a work of fine art and the other not, since for all practical purposes they were aesthetically indiscernible: if one was beautiful, the other one had to be beautiful, since they looked just alike.’ (Danto 2003, 7) This could be seen as in society people who fit a stereotype are categorized as beautiful. In my images I want to capture the beauty of each human’s individuality and unique feature. The aesthetic can link similar things together, therefore I will link this to my work by finding similarities in the beauty of nature and the human body. An example of work incorporating the sublime is the image below, by Tom Peck. We are instantly drawn to the depth of detail in the top half of the image with the intensity of the clouds in the sky capturing attention. The less busy bottom half of the image creates interest as we move down the picture to understand the context. The use of black and white brings out the clear details within and makes them stand out. The level of intrigue with the eye-catching sky has inspired me to focus of bringing out as much detail possible in my images to create a dramatic effect. I will focus on the details of the body and nature to draw people in and create an engaging photobook. One issue in the theory of beauty is whether it is subjective, in the eye of the viewer or objective, in the subject itself. ‘Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty. One person may even perceive deformity, where another is sensible of beauty; and every individual ought to acquiesce in his own sentiment, without pretending to regulate those of others.’ (Hume 1757, 136) I want to show that beauty is in everything, when the we look closely at the intricate details. The world itself is beautiful and we are a part of that as humans.

The first photographer that inspired me is Bill Brandt. He was a British photographer and photojournalist. I chose to focus on his work from the 1950s which was very expressionistic. His collection: The ‘Perspective of Nudes’ became his best-known project. In this collection he focussed on parts of the human body, using a wide-angled fixed-focus at a close range, distorting the human body making it into abstract designs. Brandt says: “My new camera saw more and it saw differently. It created a great illusion of space, an unrealistically steep perspective, and it distorted. When I began to photograph nudes, I let myself be guided by this camera, and instead of photographing what I saw, I photographed what the camera was seeing. I interfered very little, and the lens produced anatomical images and shapes which my eyes had never observed.” (Brandt  in Oden) He also made the human body into parts of landscapes, using the beach and natural settings. In his images he uses black and white to create depth and interest drawing focus to the contrast between the feature of the body in the foreground and the natural landscape in the background. I was influenced by Brandt’s work as I want to capture the relationship between the love of oneself and nature by comparing nature to the human body. His images created an abstract perspective, using unusual viewpoints and the wide-angled camera. Similarly, I want to explore the abstract perspective of the body, using close up shots of features of the body, focussing and enhancing the detail within. This image below by Bill Brandt captures a feature of the body against the nature of the beach. The use of black and white creates depth and interest within the image as focus is drawn to the contrast between the hand and the pebbles in the foreground of the image. The abstract perspective of this image forces you to look closely at what is in the photo, enabling details to be highlighted and intrigue created.

The second photographer that inspired me is Albert Renger-Patzsch. He was a German Photographer. I chose to look at his series of work called ‘Die Welt der Pflanze’ (The World of Plants) and after becoming an independent photographer his most famous work from 1982; ‘Die Welt ist schon’ (The World is beautiful.): ‘A collection of one hundred photographs whose rigorous sensitivity to form revealed patterns of beauty and order in the natural and man-made alike. Embodying a new, distinctly modern way of looking at the world, the book established Renger-Patzsch as one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century.’ (Lewis). He had a focus on light, texture and pattern in his images creating depth and intrigue. His botanical studies inspired the nature side of my book. The detailed images he created out of such simple items made me want to create the same effect in my work. The image below focusses on the tones of greys and whites creating an intense feeling. The dark background creates a focal point down the middle of the image and the sharp contrast between the white and black shows depth. Albert Renger-Patzsch creates patterns within his images. This is shown here through the spikes. This detail makes the image more interesting. The texture created by the range of tones makes the image less flat and the use of black and white creates a serious feeling enabling us to focus on the detail within the image. I want to incorporate this into my work to create interest within my images. The focus on detail links back to the idea of finding beauty in the simplest of things and embracing the nature within it.

The third photographer who inspired me is John Coplans. He was a British artist, art writer, curator and museum director. His most known work is his series of black and white nude self-portraits, not including his face. He said ‘So, I’m using my body and saying, even though it’s a 70-year-old body, I can make it interesting,’ (Coplans) This inspired me as he focusses on the beauty of his natural body, he does not worry about his age he makes interest from the details and intricacy of his natural image.  Coplans appreciates his body the way it is. I want to capture this in my images, showing off the simple beauty in our natural features. I will focus on the abstract body features that do not often get recognition for the natural form. The use of nature will help to highlight the idea of natural beauty throughout my photobook. Coplans image below represents the natural beauty of his body.  The detail created in this single image is eye-catching and intriguing. The use of black and white highlights the tiny details within the hands and legs photographed, encapsulating the subtle refinement of the body. The positioning of the camera allows focus to be drawn to the specific aspect of the human body with the plain background and enabling depth in the image to clearly come through making the detail in the foreground stand out. I will use this in my work to create interesting images focusing on depth and detail within the human features, focusing on both facial features and body parts.

To begin my photoshoot, I started by photographing features of the body, by making a collection of these images I can then find a sequence and compare them with the collection of nature photographs. This first body image represents the impact of society acceptance of embracing your own body details. The definition of the ribs makes the individual features of the body stand out. It is an example of accepting differences we each have and not conforming to societies expectations.

My first nature image depicts the beauty and detail within the natural world. The composition of the flower lined up down the middle with the black background creates a focal point that draws the attention of the viewer in. There is a bold contrast between the light shades of nature against the dark background creating an interesting image due to the detail and intricacy within. I have created depth using black and white, similar to the artists studied above. My aim to create a strong message through my images begins by creating interest and engaging photos that encourage the viewers minds interpreting the images in specific ways. I have expressed beauty in a form of portrait by focusing on the abstract ideas surrounding what is perceived as beautiful in today’s world and stripping this back to the basics, embracing everyone’s unique features along with the natural beauty seen in the environment around us.

To conclude, I will portray the natural beauty of nature and the body by focusing on depth, texture and light similar to the artists explored above. I will express beauty and identity in portraits by exploring the unique details of each individual that create an independent human featuring the abstract aspects of the body creating interest throughout my photobook. Bill Brandt, Albert Renger-Patz and John Coplan’s all have a similar photographic style. They focus on the detail, with their images in black and white there is depth and variation present. They create engaging images by capturing a feature of something, in this instance the body and nature. All of their work portrays a strong message that captures the beauty of these aspects, creating an intriguing image for the viewer. The beginning quote: ‘With every breath of nature’s depth, she was becoming more herself.’ – Angie Weiland-Crosby can be perceived as present in the images, especially in Bill Brandt’s work as it places nature and the body together. In my photo book I am portraying how we learn to love nature and the imperfections of the world we live in we can learn to love ourselves and embrace every part of us by looking at ourselves with the nature around us, this helps us to ‘become ourselves’.

Bibliography:

Danto. The Concept of the Aesthetic <https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aesthetic-concept/>

Oden, L. Bill Brandt, International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum <https://iphf.org/inductees/bill-brandt/>

Lewis, E. Tate. Albert Renger-Patzsch <https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/display/albert-renger-patzsch>

Coplans, J. John Coplans < http://www.artnet.com/artists/john-coplans/>