What are headshots?

The purpose of a head shot is to get a professional image of the persons head, where the focus is only of them. They are often used to convey professionalism.

They are mainly used for politics and people of status, or more commonly Instagram and the social media profile pictures.

Henry Mullins

Henry Mullins is one of the most famous photographers represented in the Societe Jersiase Photo-Archive, producing over 9,000 portraits of islanders from 1852 to 1873 at a time when the population was around 55.000.

Mullins was famous for his “Diamond Cameo” he would print a Diamond shape cameo on his Carte de visite to show four different angles of a person, with almost one different card.

My Diamond Cameo

In photoshop I made 4 ovals and put them into the form of a diamond. then I dragged the 4 images on top of the ovals, then made them a clipping mask so that they went into the oval. Then a found a vintage background on Google and made it the background and also put a copy on top. The copy on top I changed the layer style and made the opacity 50 so that the pattern would be on top of the images as well.

Double / Muti Exposures

Double or multiple exposures are an illusion created by layering images (or parts of images) over the top of each other. This can be achieved in the camera settings, or on Adobe Photoshop by creating layers and then using blending options and opacity control. Artist have used these techniques to explore unique ideas and evoke dream-like imagery, or imagery that explores time / time lapse.

Alexander Rodchenko

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Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko was a Russian artist, sculptor, photographer and Graphic Designer.

He was one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design; he was married to the artist Varvara Stepanova.

This is his work in the style of double exposure. He used 2 photos the create the effect. the layer on top is slightly transparent so that you can see the layer behind it.

My Attempt

I edited this image with Photoshop, and used several photo which I took in the studio.

I used multiple photos and layered them over each other making the eyes the main point where I aligned them, this made a blur effect for everything else.

This worked out well, and is in the style of Alexander Rodchenko, it created a unique effect where it messes with the viewers perception of the image as there isn’t a plain, simple face, unless you squint your eyes.

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Left Image:

I love how the colours mix giving off a haze of lighter tones in the background.

It uses 2 different images, both use 2 point lighting, using a red light and a white light to create a half and half coloured image.

I used one of the eyes to line them up and put the top image on a 50% opacity to see through to the background image.

Overall, i think that the white light, create a nice highlight which bring out the details on the face. This is also where the main overlay is, so it put a bigger emphasis on the multi-exposure aspect.

Right

Diamond Cameo

Henry Mullins

Henry Mullins was an English Photographer born in 1818.

Henry Mullins was the first professional photographer to come to Jersey and establish a portraiture business in the very early days of photography.

Below is an example of one of Henry’s pieces where he makes use of the presentation technique – diamond cameo.

Diamond Cameos feature a series of four portraits that feature different angles or positions of the subject and are placed in a diamond shape in oval frames.

Double / Multi-exposures

Double / multi-exposures are compositions where multiple images are layered into one to create a repetition illusion.

Man Ray

Man Ray was an American experimental photographer born in 1890.

He experimented with rayographs and camera-less photography and was a specialist in the dark room.

These experimental veiws on photography led Ray to discover the emerging surrealist movement in France.

Surrealism was a movement that sought to the juxtapose distant realities and activate the unconscious mind through the imagery.

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Ray’s pieces explore surrealism by challenging the idea of having many compositions of the same subject in one image. He does this by creating a multi-exposure – using the same piece of film to take multiple images of the same subject.

He uses a high contrast in his images and leaves them slightly underexposed to create a gloomier feel.

Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition in photography refers to the connection of two images with assumed similarities.

Below is a composition I shot where there is a juxtaposition between the subject and the landscape, surfer and the ocean.

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The images above are both lowkey, they juxtapose in the tonal elements such as high contrast and low saturation but also in a contextual fashion – a surfer and the surfers environment.

Henry Mullins and Michelle Sank

Below are a few examples of a series of juxtaposing compositions where Photographer Michelle Sank responds to Henry Mullins’ works.

She responds by taking modern versions of old Henry Mullins pieces and juxtaposing them according to social, political, class and professional stand points.

Below is my attempt at juxtaposing with one of Henry Mullins’ portraits.

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Sequence/grid

Henry Mullins has a good example of sequencing in his portrait album book.

This is a way of displaying final pieces and showcasing work in an ascetic, accessible and uniform manner.

The following is my reaction to J Grant Brittan’s piece.

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Photo Montage

Photomontage is the technique of making a composite photograph by overlapping, gluing, cutting, and rearranging two or more photographs into a new image. 

John Stezaker

Is a British photographer born in 1949.

He is fascinated by the “lure”of images.

Stezakers’ works focus on photo montage to give old images a new meaning and add a creative surrealistic tinge to his photography.

My response to Stezakers’ work: