August Sander is a German photographer who produced an inclusive photographic document of German people which was inspired after he took photos of local farmers. He produced two of theses photographic documentaries: “Man in the Twentieth Century” and “Face of Our Time“. Sander would categorise his portraits by peoples profession or social class which later influenced the likes of Bernd and Hilla Bechar and Nicholas Nixon. Most of August Sander’s images were clear as to what the subjects occupation was however, some don’t clearly reveal what their occupation is and they leave the audience speculating what they do for a living.

Image analysis:

This is digital image taken on a 35mm Leica camera of a German farmer. The genre of this photograph is environmental portraiture. The mis-en-scene presents the subject sitting on a wall, at a slight angle, holding on to a walking stick between his legs. The photo has been taken from straight on so the subject is looking directly down the lens. The colour of the image is monotone, this brings out many different textures in the image such as the subjects hands, beard (rough), the walking stick (smooth). All of the different textures in the image give the image depth. The use of light is natural which can be seen by the contrast in tones throughout the image. You can see the lighter tones on the subjects face, hands and the walking stick. The darker tones can be seen on the subjects blazer and in the background. The background of the image is out of focus whereas the subject is in focus which suggests that a that image has been taken with a shallow depth of field using an f-stop of around f/2.8. By having the background out of focus it makes the subject stand out to the viewer. August Sander has used the rule of thirds as the subject is centrally framed in the image. It can be argued that the Sander has used leading lines by having the subject hold his stick between his legs, leading the audience up to the focal point of the image.

An environmental portrait is portrait of an individual or individuals that captures them in their natural surroundings/ work environment rather than a studio or artificial set up. An environmental portrait can reveal a lot about a person and can equally conceal. I think an environmental portrait can send a message to the audience about the subjects story as they come across quite cinematic and raw.

Analysis

This is a digital photograph by Arnold Newman in 1963. The mise en scene presents Alfred Krupp in Essen, Germany. He is a German Jew surrounded by an industrial setting; pillars, trains, vehicle parts, tracks, metal.

The lighting appears to be natural in the background, coming through windows and holes in the structure. However, in the foreground, the lighting on the man appears artificial. This is interesting as the man himself is the only natural thing in the image apart from the sunlight. This can convey ideas of factories overloading the world with unnecessary products, controlled by humans.

The aperture is around f/4 as the foreground is crisp and in focus however the background is blurred. The shutter speed is fast. The ISO seems to be very high and the textures of the foreground are very crisp.

In the background, the colours are simple and subdued, however, in the foreground, the colours of the man are harsh and contrasting. This presents the man as important, however the shadows around him and on his face also present him as sinister.

The image follows the rule of thirds very well as shown:

The rule is accentuated by his hand placement and the pillars. The pillars create a frame within a frame effect which is very clever.

Personally, I don’t like this image, it seems sinister and evil. However, it is very well framed and interesting photo of the subject. I would like to recreate some photos like this, using a frame within a frame effect.

plan

I am going to take photos at the market of the workers such as fruit shop, cake shop ,the chocolate shop, the flower shops

I will go take photographs in my frees today

Visual:

At a first glance, we can see Krupp at the very front looking at us, he is clearly the main subject of the photo being the very first thing we notice. Behind him, seems to be some sort of industrial building and looking closer their are also trains in the background. The blue sparks on the left train, because of the bright lighting, catches your eye and it looks like it’s coming from someone welding the train which implies that this place is supposed to hold, manufacture or repair trains. Some other items are spotted too, like the collection of wheels right behind Krupp and all sorts of bars and tools laying around behind him as well. Notice also how the lighting is only shining on either side of the man’s face from two adjacent lightbulbs above him creating artificial lighting except for the rest of the factory where natural light is shining through, the lightbulbs create contrast on his face as the middle appears darker. Two scratched-up and written on columns are also on both his left and right which can create a way of measuring rule of thirds as it helps separate different sections of the photo and the columns also create a sort of frame inside a frame effect, limiting the view of the rest of the factory. Lines of perspective can also be seen going all the way through the factory to the end wall to show depth of field and how long the building is. The man’s clothes aren’t what you’d expect a factory worker to wear, he is wearing a suit which means he must be the manager of this factory.

Contextual:

This Photograph is of Alfred Krupp and was taken by Arnold Newman in Germany, 1963. Alfred Krupp is a German Industrialist and a Nazi Sympathiser and Arnold Newman is a Jewish Photographer. These two kinds of people have very brutal history together, particularly during World War Two. In the factory you can see trains and railways, which were used mostly to transport captured Jews to the concentration camps during World War Two. Krupp would enslave Jews during WW2 by giving them hard labour until they couldn’t work any longer, rendered useless, he would send them to the concentration camps to be killed. Given this information it gives the photo a sense of unease and gives an idea on what this photo is actually about. Krupp is now seen more as a bad guy, which can be both applied to his actions and serious appearance in the photo.

Technical:

Arnold Newman at first didn’t want to take the photo of Alfred Krupp obviously due to their history together. Arnold said he ‘saw him as the devil’ and that he wanted to ‘put a knife in his back’. When Newman agreed to do the shoot and had Krupp positioned in the factory, he asked him to lean forward so he put his hands together under his chin and leaned in, giving a more serious stare which made him look scarier. Arnold later said that his “hair stood on end” because of this. Arnold also said when he clasped his hands together that “As a Jew, it’s my own little moment of revenge.”, ‘It was my impression of a Nazi who managed to survive despite killing millions of people’.

Conceptual:

The meaning of this image is clearer now, given the info from Newman himself we now understand that he wanted to show how this person got away with doing what he did and the aftermath of World War Two still remains.

What are environmental portraits?

An environmental portrait is a portrait executed in the subject’s usual environment, such as in their home or workplace, and it illuminates the subject’s life and surroundings.

August Sander

A famous photographer that does a lot of environmental portraits is August Sander, he made a project called “The Face of our People” then producing a volume of portraits titled “The Face of Our Time” in 1929. 

August sander took lots of inspiration from Bernd and Hilla Becher, using their idea of Typologies in his portraiture work. Each image was taken in a similar was, with the subject standing “stoically”. He documented German society in between the two World Wars, he wanted to make a record of social types, classes and the relationships between them and discovered that the collection was more powerful than just the images by themselves. This collection was so powerful that the Nazis actually destroyed the images and banned the book.

At first glance, the photograph appears intimidating, with moody green tones plastered throughout the image and low levels of light within the foreground, implying something potentially sinister or disturbing. The man in the portrait appears to be some sort of powerful businessman, as indicated by his pose and his physical age, which creates a sense of seniority.

The photo seems to have been taken in quite a low-light environment inside an abandoned warehouse of some kind. However, it also can be assumed that Newman used studio lights on both sides of the man to illuminate certain features and portray him as a more menacing villain.

In the image, there is large industrial equipment and machines placed in the background, such as cranes and trains – various other mechanical parts and accessories. It could be assumed that the setting of the photo is a factory for trains, and that the man is the owner or manager. The man is placed in the lower centre of the photo, wearing a suit, with white hair gelled to the back of his head, hunched over, interlacing his fingers and making a direct mode of address with the audience. This suggests that he is a man of business, and combined with the low lighting, implies moral corruption.

This photograph is presented as a protest piece against maybe a corporation/company or even the individual in the photo, as shown in the vilifying of the man within the image using various elements of mise-en-scene. Depending on when it was taken, it could refer to many different things – the environment, wars and conflicts, the economy or inflation.

This photograph was taken in 1963. It portrays German industrialist, Alfred Krupp, as ominous and villainous, his body language suggesting he is scheming or has committed some form of malicious act/plot. This is because Krupp was a large arms manufacturer and industrialist, supplying the German armies with weaponry used particularly during the Second World War, which in turn caused millions of deaths and global suffering.

An environmental portrait is taken within the subject’s usual environment, such as their home or workplace, and typically creates a focus on their life and surroundings.

Environmental portraits can tell stories about the lives of the people they capture, but they also conceal certain details about them. These types of photographs also play a pivotal role in showcasing people throughout different eras since the birth of photography, as they showcase clothing fashion, tools and other technology, and improvements in general quality of life.

My chosen artist to research is Alec Soth, as his style when it comes to environmental portraits tends to have quite natural, flowing light throughout the image and large senses of space.

Environmental portraiture is considered a genre of photography. Environmental Portraits are photographed portraits which capture the subject in their natural environment or environments that they’re associated with. They typically highlight aspects of the subject’s life and surroundings.

These photographs are used to tell a story, more specifically details and information about a person or people’s lives. They may include certain objects which portray this, or this could be communicated through the subject’s clothing, pose, or the environment they’re photographed in.

WHAT IS ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAITURE?

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.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAITS?

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.

WHAT DO THESE PORTRAITS REVEAL/CONCEAL?

Environmental portraits reveal much about a persons lifestyle. They show what work ethic and jobs they have as well as sharing possible hobbies of there’s, but most importantly they show the source of income a person gets. Source of income is what can define you and help you in society it reveals your personal life and you way of living, this is how people make opinions about you. However environmental images can conceal the emotions the person is feeling, in the image they could look powerful and dominant, yet we don’t actually know there true feelings. In a photograph people can create an illusion and create a different personality, they can create a new person; in a photograph you can fake your emotions and make the audience receive a completely different interpretation.

WHERE CAN YOU TAKE ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAITS?

PLACE OF WORK: where a person works shows an aspect of their personal life, an example can be someone working in a workshop.

HOBBIES: hobbies can show the type of personalities a person have, it gives an audience a view of the type of person they are, what kind of values they hold.

HOSPITALITY: taking an image of someone living place can show a persons income, and type of living, what kind of challenges they have to overcome to live.

Emotional Response

The image ensues a slight fear into the viewer, the way Alfred Krupp is standing with his hands clasped, staring at the camera can be seen as quite malicious, this could’ve been done to show he is a bad person.

Technical – how was the photo taken

Arnold Newman most likely chose to take the image in a darker light to make Alfred Krupp look like a malicious or evil person because of the crimes he committed during WW2. He took the image from above possibly showing how his power has changed – from being in power, being the one who makes the trains to having less power, being in jail.

Visual -what can we see in the image

In the middle of the foreground of the image, there is a white man, who looks to be in his 60s, who has his hands clasped together in a pyramid type shape. Behind him there are lots of different things, there are two pillars, making the image quite symmetrical. There are also objects that are almost like barrels, I’m unsure of what they actually are but they could be train wheels due to Alfred Krupp‘s past and due to the fact that there are trains in the background of the image. There is also a row of lights behind him, making his body quite shadowy.

Conceptual – why was the photo taken / presented

Arnold Newman went around taking images of people who enabled/committed crimes against Jewish people in WW2 as he is a Jewish person himself.

Contextual – who, when, where etc…the story, background, impact

Alfred Krupp (the man in the image) was a German industrialist who built the trains to send the Jewish people to different concentration camps. He also sent tanks and ammunition that he made to the Nazi army. After WW2, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for war crimes. Arnold Newman (the photographer) was a Jewish photographer and after WW2, he went around photographing different people who enabled or even committed crimes against Jewish people.