A Vanitas is often a symbolic work of art with connections to concepts like the inevitability of death, being consumed by greed and vanity, and how one’s life is being spent. They were most popular in the 1600’s and were mostly done by Dutch painters.
Sharon Core
Sharon Core is an American Artist and Photographer, born in Louisiana (1965) she studied painting at the University of Georgia and Photography at Yale University of Art. She has won numerous awards and has many exhibitions for her work. In this work she recreates the style of vanitas paintings but using a camera. It is incredibly recognisable and unique and her history as a painter helped fuel her to edit and create photos like this.
My Images-
I attempted to edit mine in a similar style to make them seem less realistic, making them seem softer and a more pleasant colour scheme.
Portraiture has been used for centuries in the form of paintings, however, in recent decades, as photography’s developed, portraits are easier to take than ever before, becoming easier and less time consuming as the decades go on.
19th Century – Louis Daguerre + Daguerreotypes
Louis Daguerre was a French painter and physicist that created the first practical process of photography called the daguerreotype after improving upon Niepce’s work after he passed.
He discovered exposing an idolized silver plate in a camera would create a permanent image if the latent image was developed through exposure to fumes of mercury then fixed by a solution of salt. Daguerre’s process lowered the exposure time from 8 hours to roughly 30 minutes! However, daguerreotypes were expensive as they were highly detailed, heavy and very fragile due to their mirror-like surface which meant only the wealthy could afford them.
Despite their pricing, daguerreotypes were very popular and used for still life, natural phenomena, documentary subjects and most commonly portraits.
Examples of daguerreotypes
19th Century – Henry Fox Talbot
Henry Talbot was an English scientist that created the salt paper and calotype processes which are known as an improved daguerreotype.
The salt paper process involved placing paper into a salt solution that would later be dried before one side of the paper got coated in a solution of silver nitrate, creating a light-sensitive silver nitrate that would darken when exposed to light. Objects would be placed on the paper or the image from a camera obscura would be used in order for the photo to be made.
One of Talbot’s slat paper photos
The Calotype process used a paper negative to make a softer version of the daguerreotype which makes it possible to make multiple copies as a negative is produced.
One of Talbot’s calotypes – The Haystack, 1842
19th Century – Julia Margaret Cameron
Julia Margaret Cameron was a British photographer who is best known for her soft-focus close-ups of many Victorian people, creating ‘moving portraits’ due to how expressive they are.
Cameron often convinced her models to dress up for their portraits which helped her create biblical-esque photos, often compared to Pre-Raphaelite paintings due to how soft and spiritual her portraits look. She achieved this soft look by using dark lighting, a shallow depth of field, long exposure times and a soft focus, all of which combined together to create her now famous portraits.
A Pre-Raphaelite painting
One of Cameron’s portraits
Cameron’s work was heavily criticized at the time due to her ‘lack of technique’ causing most of her photos to be out of focus, have cracked plates, have fingerprints etc. However, these ‘mistakes’ are what led to Cameron’s modern day success as they added character to her portraits and allowed her to truly capture each model she photographed.
Portrait photography, or portraiture, is a type of photography aimed toward capturing the personality of a person or group of people by using effective lighting, backdrops, and poses. A portrait photograph may be artistic or clinical.
USE OF STUDIO LIGHTING
An example of chiaroscuro lighting
Chiaroscuro is an Italian term which literally means ‘light-dark’. In photographs the description refers to clear tonal contrasts which are often used to suggest the volume and modelling of the subjects depicted. Artists who are famed for the use of chiaroscuro include Leonardo da Vinci and Caravaggio.
An example of Rembrandt lighting
Rembrandt lighting is a standard lighting technique that is used in studio portrait photography and cinematography. It can be achieved using one light and a reflector, or two lights, and is popular because it is capable of producing images which appear both natural and compelling with a minimum of equipment. It’s common characteristics include a triangle of light beneath one eye and a shadow beneath the nose.
OLIVER DORAN
Oliver Doran is a portrait and advertising photographer who works in Jersey, London, Paris and Dubai. Doran loves cinematic and theatrical imagery mainly of humans but also, as any professional photographer, I delve into other areas of the photographic world including; product, food, interiors and architecture. Oliver came into our studio to teach us about lighting techniques.
Robert De Niro, as shot by Oliver Doran
Oliver Doran Biography- I endeavour to shoot timeless images that work today and in a 100 years and avoid using fad techniques that date the images. One can only guess where technology will lead us but the art in the humanity will never change. Our eyes on a piece of art, a portrait and the emotion we derive should remain as relevant today as well as in 100 years time or even a 1000 years time.
