An environmental portrait puts the focus on the subject and background in one frame. In every shot, a photographer provides context to the subject I’m photographing. Each light, location, background, camera angle, composition give points of interest to the natural story of the environment.
“If we can create portraits of subjects that are true, we thereby in effect create a mirror of the times.” August Sander
Sander started photography when he was a teenager and when he came to his twenties was operating a portrait studio. Although he had a studio, Sander would travel across Germany with a large-format camera to find people who would not normally come to him for photos. Sander worked on his project (people of the twentieth century) through a period of large social and political change which spanned the Weimar Republic and the Nazi regime. This project took Sander his whole career as he tried to capture people in Germany of all working backgrounds and segments of society. The project adapted and evolved throughout the time he was doing it splitting into seven groups; ‘The Farmer’, ‘The Skilled Tradesman’, ‘The Woman’, ‘Classes and Professions’, ‘The Artists’, ‘The City’ and ‘The Last People’.
Sanders work was a source of inspiration for other upcoming photographers including Walker Evans, Bernd and Hilla Becher etc. He also changed the way that many people look at portrait photography, also informed the way people see gender and class.
Image analysis
This image shows a Nazi soldier who has a pilots mask at the top of his head. Not to long before this image was taken, the Nazis impounded unsold copies of his book ‘face of our time’ and destroyed its printing blocks. Sander then abandoned his project to do landscape photography. This persons facial expression makes him look sort of normal, but the person behind the face could be completely different, aggressive and brutal because of him being a Nazi soldier. He could of done things which would not be even slightly acceptable in this day and age, because of the war and the person that was in charge of Germany.
Soth is a photographer who is best known for capturing the Midwestern USA. Soth’s early work (and most popular project/book) “Sleeping by the Mississippi”, gained him a lot of attention by art critics. These art critics said that his photographs conveyed a strong sense of intimacy with the landscape. Soth was extremely shy as a child a was driven to start pursuing portrait photography after seeing the portrait images created by Diane Arbus. After his initial success with “sleeping by the Mississippi” Soth went on to create and publish another photo book in 2006 called “Niagara”. For this project he photographed people and places around Niagara Falls and has since then produced two more books.
Image analysis
This image shows a man (Charles) dressed in work overalls holding two model airplanes. Soth had spotted this mans house while travelling along the Mississippi and admired the glass room which had been built at the top of the house. Soth waited for Charles to come home from work and when he arrived back he was wearing these work overalls which Soth though would be perfect for a portrait photo. Charles showed Soth around the glass room and then thought to show him his model airplanes which Soth also wanted to be in the photo. Charles took Soth to the roof to take some photographs. This image represents the inner child of adults with Charles still having an interest in model airplanes which is normally something a child would enjoy.
Arnold Abner Newman was an American photographer, known for his environmental portraits of artists and politicians and for popularizing this style of portraiture. With this method, he placed his sitters in a setting representative of their professions, aiming to capture the essence of an individual’s life and work.
His environmental approach to portraiture was influenced by symbolism and impressionism, and defined by the imperative of captivating the viewer no matter how well known the subject was and often stressed that he was motivated by a genuine interest in his subjects, and in the craft of photography. While he specialized in photographing artists, Newman captured the likeness of a vast range of figures, from athletes and actors to presidents and politicians.
This image shows the sitter, Eugene Smith, sat in a messy and chaotic room. Eugene was a famous American photojournalist so we can assume this image is shot in his workplace/studio as the background shows images being produced. I find this image creates a feeling of being overwhelmed as he is positioned in the centre of the image to be small compared to the mess around him portraying the large impact his work takes on his life as he allows it to be larger than himself and shows how his work has taken over his life. However, In contrast to that I get a sense of a calm and contentness from this image presenting W.Eugene as comforted by his work as he has made it his life.
Bert Teunissen
Bert Teunissen is best known for his work documenting European homes built before WW2 and their inhabitants.
I have observed that throughout this topic, Bert Teunissen has created a pattern in the way he stages his subjects. They either have their hands on their lap or if there is a surface available, they will have one arm leaning on it. This is a well made artistic decision as it creates a similarity across the images, even though they are all very different because of the subjects and their unique homes.
In the majority of the photographs, the subjects also have little to no expression on their faces. This, along with their hand placements, creates a sincere tone in the photographs.
Portraiture is a very old art form going back at least to ancient Egypt. Before the invention of photography, a painted, sculpted, or drawn portrait was the only way to record the someone’s appearance. Getting painted portraits done was only available to families in the upper classes of society. That all changed when photography came into existence.
Photography
Portrait photography is the process of taking a picture in an attempt to capture the subject’s personality. The idea of the subject being aware separates portrait photography from every other type of photography involving people in the frame.
Richard Avedon says,
“A photographic portrait is a picture of someone who knows he is being photographed, and what he does with this knowledge is as much a part of the photograph as what he’s wearing or how he looks.”
However, portrait photography hasn’t always been that easy. In the late 18th century, the process behind creating a single portrait took immense amounts of laborious, economically conscious efforts which had an effect on how portraits were done.
In 1839, Robert Cornelius shot the first successful portrait photograph in the form of a self-portrait.
He used the natural light outdoors to get a faster exposure. Robert had to hold this pose for a whole minute before rushing back and putting the lens cap back on due to the early type of camera he was using.
Nowadays, portraits have become a staple in photography and can be seen in the media. As with many other styles of photography, portraiture has evolved and modernized with the aid of smartphones and devices, and the self-portrait has been made more convenient with the selfie.
The selfie is a form of self-portraiture that has become increasingly popular over the past decade. Although the word “selfie” didn’t start becoming used until around 2002 which isw nearly 150 years after Cornelius snapped his first self-portrait and the term didn’t really catch on until around 2011.
For the sets of images below i went around the school taking pictures of people acting natural buy doing their hobbies/Jobs
I believe that the outcome of this photo shoot went well, and I am proud of the outcomes. However, it could be improved my capturing more photos and the subject face on to the lens.
Alec Soth is a photographer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Soth has made many books, ‘Sleeping By The Mississippi’ being the most famous, as he likes to make “large scale American projects.” ‘Sleeping By The Mississippi’ was put together by the images Soth took while travelling around the Mississippi river. He likes his images to be ‘of off-beat’, obvious and boring images of modern America. Within his images he likes the subject to be a “loner or dreamer.” Alec Soths work is inspired by Diane Arbus and has had his work compared to Walker Evens and Stephen Shore. When taking his images Soth has admitted that he “feels very nervous at times” but. he finds that his awkwardness comfort people.
This is a digital portrait taken of Charles Vasa by Alec Soth. The mise-en-scene presents Charles in his coveralls standing on a roof holding two model planes, one in each hand, presenting them to the viewer. Charles is stood against a rural winter background in Minnesota, which is out of focus. This tells us that that image has been taken with a narrow depth of field and a large aperture because the subject is in focus and the background isn’t. The photo has been taken from a straight on angle with the subject engaging with the camera, which makes the image feel tense and gives it depth. The use of lighting is natural however, as it is a overcast winter day there isn’t much of a light source which is why there aren’t many shadows present in the image. The colours in the image are quite dull and could be described as ‘army like’ as there are many greens, browns, white and blacks seen in the image. The use of those colours relate to the Air force as the subject is holding two model planes and wearing clothing that makes him look like a pilot. It can be seen that Soth has used the rules of thirds because he has cantered the subject in the middle thirds. Overall the image has a sense of awe and a dreamlike feel to it as the freshly painted house contrasts with the messy, unfinished rooftop.
I did an environmental portraiture shoot for my summer task. These photos are one of my favourite shoot that I have done due to the lighting, composition and contrasts in black and whites.
At the time I based these images off David Goldblatt’s work, and his environmental portraiture photos. I really like the way he frames his subjects and uses light to frame and define their faces.
CONTACT SHEETS
Image Selection
My critique: Altogether I am pleased with how the shoot went, however the only thing I would have changed is the focus and depth of field. I feel like I could have pushed myself to use manual focus and blur out the background.
Editing: I think I Managed to contrast the whites and blacks well, and focus the light on my subject to create a strong focal point. Goldblatt’s photos mainly have the person’s environment /lifestyle captured in the image. I tried to recreate this as much as I could, whilst also getting the right lighting, focus and depth that I wanted in the image. One thing I changed was taking my photos from different angles e.g. lower level looking up, unlike David;s work with is mainly straight on.