Environmental Portraits

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