Portrait photography is a picture of a single person or group of people. The photo often aims to demonstrate the personality of the subject(s) with effective techniques such as lighting, background and poses. A portrait does not have to just be a photo of someone or some people from the shoulders up. Portraits can be full body as they are trying to say something about the subject which may not be specific to their face.
Some examples of professional portrait work from Arnold Newman
My examples of Candid and Environmental portrait work:
Street photography, also sometimes called candid photography, is photography conducted for art or enquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places. … Street photography does not necessitate the presence of a street or even the urban environment.
What is the purpose of street photography?
The purpose of street photography is not to record or show what a person is doing but to capture the mood and showing their personal vision of the world.
MARTIN PARR
Martin Parr is a British documentary and street photographer who is often described as the most explosive surprise to ever suddenly emerge onto the subgenre’s scene. Known around the world for his intimate and satirical photographs which focus on different aspects of modern life, Parr usually explores various topics concerning social classes of England and the hypocrisy of the West in general. He concentrates on photographing the mundane, everyday life of people that live just around the corner, enhancing the images with vivid colors by using specific flash techniques. Many have even went as far as describing his work as actual kitch. With almost forty books published and over eighty exhibitions held worldwide, Martin has established himself as one of the most prolific British street photographers. It should be noted that Martin Parr is as well a valuable member of the Magnum Photos organization.
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. Environmental photography is a mixture of lifestyle photography and traditional photography. With this type of portraiture the environment surrounding the person plays a key role in the photo. The environment in the photo is meant to tell you about the person and what they’re like or what they enjoy. Unlike lifestyle portraits where the location isn’t important, this type of portraiture’s environment is just as important as the person in the image and the person can pose in the photo.
Environmental photography can also be seen as a type of “formal” portrait photography where there is a posed picture of a person or a group of people. It focuses on clearly showing facial features and may be designed to highlight a certain characteristic of the subject, such as occupation or personality and is a long-standing method to capture professional-looking images. It is not however a snapshot, but a carefully arranged pose under effective lighting conditions. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean the subject must appear stiff and lifeless.
Formal/Posed – a planned and posed image of a person of group of people such as a wedding photograph or photos of people for business purposes.
As we know, a portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. With environmental portraiture, the background often adds to this, often telling a story by providing the viewer with some context of the subjects surroundings. Additionally, by photographing a person in their natural surroundings, it is thought that you will be able to better illuminate their character, and therefore portray the essence of their personality, rather than merely a likeness of their physical features. It is also thought that by photographing a person in their natural surroundings, the subject will be more at ease, and so be more conducive to expressing themselves, as opposed to in a studio, which can be a rather intimidating and an artificial experience.
A great example of environmental portraiture is that of Arnold Newman’s photo of Alfried Krupp which I wrote an analysis on here.
There are many photographic techniques that can be applied to portrait photography, all of which give a create a different meaning, and overall mood of the image. Certain techniques are only used in certain environments, like a professional setting, whereas some more general techniques, like the use of colour, can be applied anywhere.
Informal/Candid– a photograph captured naturally, without creating a posed appearance. often the subject is unaware that the photograph has been taken.
candid portrait
Formal/Posed- a planned and posed image of a person of group of people such as a wedding photograph or photos of people for business purposes.
formal portrait
Head shot / Half body / Three quarter length / Full body-this relates to how much of the subject’s body is visible. A head shot is often used by people working in the entertainment industry like actors, whereas a three-quarter length shot is often more casual.
head shot portrait
three quarter length portrait
High angle / Low angle / Canted (or Dutch) angle-this is referring to the positioning of the camera when the photo is taken. A canted angle image is one where the horizon and any straight lines is at an angle to the bottom of the image, which adds drama and a possible sense of tension or psychological unease.
high angle portrait
low angle portrait
Dutch angle portrait
Archival / Historic- images of a famous historical or political figure, perhaps during a defining moment in time or else as a posed, formal image
archival/historical portrait
High key / Low key- high key images are bright, light, and airy and contain little to no shadow. Low key images are mainly blackness or shadows and have an emphasis of natural or artificial light only in certain parts of the frame.
Street photography is photography conducted for art or enquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places.
Street Photography is a sub-genre of photojournalism…
Street photography does not necessitate the presence of a street or even the urban environment. The concept of the “flaneur” or people watcher is often referred to street photographers
This image below was taken in Seville at the beginning of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s career as a photographer. It has a strong geometric form. The viewer sees the gang of boys through a large hole in a wall which frames the scene. Without knowing the date of the image one might guess that it was taken during the Spanish Civil War (1936–9) or afterwards. The fact that it was taken in 1933 gives it a strange sense of premonition; the boys are playing at war in the ruins of a war that has not yet happened.
Henri Cartier-Bresson : Children in Seville, Spain, 1933.
Blog Post 1 : Define, describe and explain street photography.
Include images, moodboards, hyperlinks to relevant articles and URLs and add a video or two on street photography if you can
Take care in your choice of images…browse the list of street photographers below and choose from the work to “speaks” to you…
Aim to show knowledge and understanding of how street photography can reflect the life / lifestyle / politics / history / social class of an area or group of people…
Do the images make a statement…or ask a question?
Alex Webb
Blog Post 2 :
Henri Cartier – Bresson and
“The Decisive Moment”
Create a blog post / case study about Henri Cartier-Bresson that includes…
Brief biography
Mood-board of key images
Select one image and apply Technical | Visual | Contextual | Conceptual analysis (image analysis)
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 the power, 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.
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.
Lewis Hine
Documenting the Public 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.
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.
