DIAMOND CAMEOS

A diamond cameo contains a portrait displayed (commonly 4 times) in circular shapes arranged in a diamond shape. Typically, the main subject would change their composure (i.e look to the left) for each picture, it then would be arranged in such a way where each separate picture is looking the opposite way. They were common in the late 19th century and were often commissioned by wealthy, upper class people or figures of monarchy/authority. They are often very informal compared to the existing portraiture of the time, which was often very serious and formal.

HENRY MULLINS

Headshots by Mullins of both Jersey men and women were produced as vignette portraits -which was a common technique used in mid to late 19th century- they were then arranged into diamond cameos.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND HENRY MULLINS

STUDIO

In the studio we did a small shoot of passport-type images, I used these images for my diamond cameo.

First I edited the images in Lightroom- turning them to black and white and resizing them- then I exported them to Adobe Photoshop.

Using the cut out tool I cut out my main subject in a circular shape then placed and arranged them on a black background.

This is my final image, I believe it lives up to the classic definition of a diamond cameo however I decided to overlay some of the portraits to create a textured, more layered effect. I changed the images to black and white to incorporate the traditional photography of the time, where images were black and white.

Overall I like the outcome of my diamond cameo experimentation, I really like the way the subject is looking in different directions, with only one image where they are not looking at the camera. I find this composition really interesting.