“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. The term is most frequently used of a genre of photography”
What makes an environmental portrait?
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. The term is most frequently used of a genre of photography.
What distinguishes an environmental portrait from a studio portrait?
A typical environmental portrait simply will illuminate a subject’s life and surroundings. A studio portrait is a portrait which will focus less on surroundings and more on the individual by using sterile backdrops and props so to help enhance the focus on the individual in the photo.
Alfred Krupp, industrialist. Essen, Germany, 1963 by Arnold Newman
How does the image make me feel?
At first look, the image has an intimidating and sinister feel to it. It is portrayed in such a way to suggest that the subject is evil and perhaps in a position of power, reiterated by his glare down the lens and the way in which his hands join together under his chin. The subject gives us the sense that he holds a lot of power and is possibly trying to hide something.
How was the image taken technically?
The image appears to be taken on 35mm film, using a tripod, as Newman usually did with most his images. The composition of the image suggests that it was taken with a wide-angle lens, giving the image its depth and a ‘frame in a frame’ feel. It was taken straight on which makes you feel intimidated as the subject is in the centre of the image. There is a use of natural lighting, coming through the windows at the back and top of the images. There has also, been a use of artificial lighting. By using both natural and artificial lighting it creates shadows on the subject and has illuminated sections of his face.
What can I see in the image?
The image presented is taken in a run down industrial trainyard, which is storing parts for the trains and can be seen in the background, behind the subject who is the main focal point in the image. Within the background you can see many train carriages and metal scaffolding. In the foreground, it presents two pillars, with graffiti on them, behind the subject which creates a second frame within the image giving it a ‘frame in a frame’ feel. The focal point of the image is the subject who can be seen staring down the lens. The subjects body language suggests that he is a powerful figure as he is resting his chin on his hands, which are joined together in a pyramid way. The way the subject is staring down the lens it gives off the sense that he has evil motives as the lighting on his face makes his eyes look sunken into his face.
Why was the photo taken like this?
The photographer chose to take the image like this to portray the subject as an evil, sinister character. The use of the light, angle and framing all give off this sense that the subject is plotting something.
What is the story/background of this image?
The image was taken by Arnold Newman, a Jewish American photographer. The subject of the image is convicted (and later pardoned) war criminal, German industrialist Alfred Krupp. Newman saw Krupp as the devil, as Alfred Krupp’s family was responsible for using 100,000 slaves from the concentration camp system to manufacture arms for the Nazis. Krupp’s cunning stance, came from Newman asking him to lean forward and he collapsed his hands together under his chin. Arnold Newman said “my hair stood on end” suggesting he was overwhelmed with emotion.
Anthropocene refers to the earths latest geological time period which is that of the affect of humans on the environment and earths ecosystem. Humanity has had drastic effects on the earths climate such as animal extinctions – The Anthropocene was a project started where artists- photographers, filmmakers ect could make responses to climate change and Anthropocene. For my project I decided to focus on plastics and how we are so reliant and so used to using and seeing plastic everywhere.
initial ideas
-post covid
-population density buildings-apartments offices- night photography
– plastic waste – plastic bottle colidescope??
My initial plan for the Anthropocene project was to look at the after math of Covid – masks and signs left over. I found a lot of that in Edinburgh and other cities ( old vaccination centre signs left in shopping enters) but jersey didn’t have anything as extreme because of the smaller population. I decided to focus on plastics and how used we are the seeing them in our daily lives.
My initial plan for the Anthropocene project was to look at the after math of Covid – masks and signs left over. I found a lot of that in Edinburgh and other cities (old vaccination centre signs left in shopping enters) but jersey didn’t have anything as extreme because of the smaller population. At this point I was also very inspired by Stephen Gills work and felt that it wouldn’t hand itself as well to that so I decided to focus on plastics and how used we are the seeing them in our daily lives – hence inspired by Stephen Gill I put plastics over the lens so you were literally seeing through it. The final photos inspired by Stephen Gill in themselves were interesting but didn’t end up being my favourite.
I had struggles getting to camera to focus how I wanted through the clear plastic screen and a lot of photos ended up being blurry if I were to do it again I think I would find another way to suspend the plastics in front of the lens but I think it was an interesting experimentation and something I would try again in the future.
For the second photoshoot I collected plastic bags inspired by Vilde Rolfsen but instead I wanted to focus on human form mixed in with the plastic, the idea being ‘drowning in plastic’. I also took inspiration from René Magritte’s The Lovers painting as I wanted to create something ‘haunting’, so I focused on trying to make shapes and silhouettes inside the plastic bags using backlighting.
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For these two images I used filters over the studio lights – Alone they aren’t successful images however together they compliment each other well.
The initial attempts looked a bit horror movie poster esc so I leaned more towards scrunching the bags to make interesting shapes.
The middle image of the three was kind of and afterthought as it was suggested to me that there should be a third to create balance finding an image was quite difficult and it is not my favourite however i think it works well to break up the other two.
I then tried using portraiture along with the plastic bag and whilst I liked these two but I found the portraiture was overbearing with others and took away from what I was trying to achieve.
The black and white whilst giving it a more dramatic look took away from the unnatural colours I was trying to achieve.
With this image I was attempting to imitate the pastel colour gradients that Vilde Rolfsen uses in her work – whilst being whilst achieving what I wanted I felt that for this product it wasn’t what I was looking
Over all I am pleased with the project and the final images I think they articulate what I was going for well. however there’s a lot if given the chance I would change and improve.
For the first part of this shoot I chose to photography a cyclist who was warming up before a race. I think that I have framed him quite well in the camera as his is very central and almost sits on the bottom of the image. I like the colours that contrast in the image like the red and bright blue as well as the white and green standing out to the viewers. I think that the fire track in the image adds a focal point as after you have seen the model your eyes get drawn down the path as well as into the background. The grey sky doesn’t add much to the image however, I think that it allows you to focus on the rider rather than what else the image holds. I have also shown one of my images in black and white as well which I think is a very effective image. I like how it has brought out all the detail with the darker and lighter tones as well as enhance the models facial expressions. If I were to make this image again I would add a bit more space to the bottom of the image to put the model in the very centre of the frame. As you can see in the image with the red grid over it with the rule of three, my model is a bit more in the bottom image rather than in the centre with a bit in the top and bottom.
I also tried some different edits with this image as you can see bellow.
In this image I left all of the image black and white but made the part of his jacket the was red show.
In this image I did the same however I made the red parts of his bike and the tape on the rollers show as well as his jacket.
For the second part I photographed three dancers, I had them all in different costumes and positions so that I had a variety or images. I kept the background plain so that the viewer would be able to focus on the model rather than looking for other detail. I like how these images turned out and think that they capture the dancers nicely. I also think that they all stand out with the colours of their costumes which contrast with the background wall. Similarly to my images above of the rider, I like how I have framed the models as they are very central, with some space above and below them. I have also edited the image to black and white white I think it more effective that the original colour image. I think that it make the model look more defined and exenterates her costume, hair and glasses. If I were to take these images again I would add some more colour to the image as they are very dull other than the costumes, and are quite plain. I think that to improve this I could have edited them more to give them a better contrast in tones and add more definition to them.
Firstly I imported my images into Lightroom classic and selected them using ‘X’ to reject and ‘P’ to select it. I went for images that were more of the theme I was going for, where the model was looking at the camera. I also used some where they weren’t looking at the camera however they weren’t as effective in my opinion.
I then edited them also on Lightroom using the ‘auto’ button at first to see if I liked the simple editing and if I thought the image could look better I then further edited them to make them more clear, bright and focused.
For the first part of this shoot I used one of the science lab technicians and photographer him in the lab. I asked him to wear his lab coat and be interacting with some of the objects in there to include his job. Overall I like how these image turned out, I think that with the one that I added a green tint to came out more effective as it gives the image a chemical effect as lots of the things in the lab were brightly coloured. I still think that my other image turned out good as they are brighter which draws the viewer into them as they are eye catching and engaging again with the different bright colours in them. I like how his gloves are blue as they contrast to most of the other colours like orange for example and make you want to look at the detail that is within them.
Firstly I imported my images into Lightroom and selected the images out of all of the ones that I took that I wished to use by using ‘x’ to reject and ‘p’ to pick. I then developed those images by editing them to make them more clear and focused. With some of them I added a coloured tint so make them feel more interesting.
Alfred Krupp, industrialist. Essen, Germany, 1963 by Arnold Newman
Emotional Response
I like how the image is very busy which allows for the viewers to look for the different details and smaller objects that we don’t see at first glance. I think that the image is initially quite intimidating the man looks to me as if he carries a lot of power behind him. I also think that the shadows on his face from the natural and artificial lights adds to the mood of the image making Krupp more powerful. Overall I think that this image has the potential to hold a lot of meaning behind it as it is full of detail, as well as allowing the viewer to begin thinking what could be happening in the image without researching it.
how was the photo taken -Technical
As you can see in the image below I have added a grid over the top to show how the image is taken in a way to allow for the rule of thirds to be present. Newman has taken the image so that Krupp is in the centre of frame at the bottom, this is where the viewers eyes are initially drawn to before looking at the factory behind him almost like a tunnel because of the natural lighting on the roof.
Visual -what can we see in the image
Conceptual – why was the photo taken / presented
Initially Newman did not want to take the photo of Krupp, however ended up deciding to take it and before he did he knew exactly what kind of image he wished to produce. He wanted Krupp infant of the industrial background and made sure he was in the centre to show that he was the man in charge of the site. The way Newman has also made sure that the lighting and position made the image more dramatic helps reveal to the viewers what kind of man he was. Newman wanted to present his a brutal and the reason to why so many people had died. When he asked Krupp to lean forward he naturally interlinked his hands which put Newman on edge. Newman gained his bit of revenge when Krupp was furious at the sight of the image which became one of his most famous images.
Contextual – who, when, where etc…the story, background, impact
In the image above Newman, who was from a family of second generation Jewish immigrants, has captured the German industrialist, Alfred Krupp. Newman became known as the father of environmental portraits after this image was released. Initially he did not wish to take the image as he saw Krupp as a devil and war criminal. However, he did decide to take the job of photographing him but was far from comfortable, he says “My hair stood on end” after he asked Krupp to lean on the chair he was sat on for the image. As the image was only taken around 20 years after the Second World War, this may have been why Newman was hesitant at first as he was a Jewish and Krupp was German and the Germans killed many Jews during the Holocaust. I think Newman also captures why he was unsure on taking the image in Krupp’s facial expressions as he gives a very intimidating look. Through the image Newman says that it was his way of getting a slight bit of revenge on Krupp as it made him out to be a Nazi who survived yet killed thousands of people. During the war Krupp insisted on using slave labour to manufacture arms for the Nazi’s, in that time it was natural for the Jewish workers to be treated the worsted Krupp followed that by perishing them.
Alec is an American photographer, based in Minnesota, who takes different environmental portraits. When travelling through the states, which he is knows for, he stops wherever he feels like and asks different people with interesting jobs or hobbies etc, if he can take portraits of them for his work, documenting what he finds. He includes the model in his image as well as their job in the background or something in their hands etc which they enjoy doing as a hobby. I think that Soth is an inspiring photographer and I am going to try and take some images like his of my own.
