What is 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.”

Environmental portraits are normally people in their working environments or environments that they are associated with, like their homes.

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These images can reveal somebodies life, like where they work, or what their home is like, or what they do at home. These portraits can be used to have an insight on another’s life, or to have an insight on a profession. These portraits can also be called historical, as they may show jobs, which are no longer professions, or show how homes used to look and what people would do in their homes. The images also shows people not in the present. These environmental portraits help feel a connection between the photographer and the person getting their picture taken, unlike how it would be on a phone.