What are Environmental portraits?

An Environmental photo is a photo taken of a person, usually head on, of them in their ‘natural environment’ ( place of work etc.. )

The first Environmental portrait was first created by a man named Arnold Newman ( 1918 – 2006 ). He was known for pioneering and popularising the environmental portrait.

He placed his ‘models’ in their normal work environment when he took the photo so he could represent their professions, aiming to capture the essence of an individuals life and work.

Environmental portrait mood board –

To me, these photos represent a lot more then just people at their work, they represent peoples lives and how they live and what they do. It gives a picture of the personal part of someone’s life, and almost gives us a window to understand people in a different way then just what is on the surface and what we can see first hand.

Typology –

Typology is basically a fancy word for a group of photos or a certain ‘photoshoot’ that are all themed together that give the same ‘feel’ or ‘idea’.

Some environmental portraits are also typologies, taken in a similar way. The photos all have similarities even though they are completely different and show different people and lives in completely different ways.

Environmental Portrait – 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. They are normally used to reveal something about the subject in the photo particularly in relation to the background. This does not mean it has to be a positive association like the photo Arnold Newman took of Alfried Krupp and the way Newman has framed Krupp to represent the person he is and what he has done.

Typologies – A body of work with a consistent style. Often portrayed in many different forms, some being in a structured group with equal spacing in-between or a particular style in general like the style of environmental portraits. Environmental portraits are often associated with the style of typology as they are always structed images with the same idea of the subject looking into the camera and often centred.

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 surroundings or background is a key element in environmental portraiture, and is used to convey further information about the person being photographed.

While it is often true that the background may dominate the subject, this need not necessarily be so. In fact, the details that convey the message from the surroundings can often be quite small and still be significant. It can be used as a way to tell a story.

Mood board

All these images are very unique and tell very different stories. Some portray sadness while others are more lively and happy. Some images are linked to there workplace and others are to do with there current situation. They are some similarities (topology’s are similar photos) like how they all have there subject in the centre, most look into the camera, and they all have lots of contrast.

The bottom right has the basketball net as the main focus of the image. However, this does not exclude the person from the image, its almost used as a way to lead the eyes to the neutral face of the guy.

The top left is quite different as the main focus is clearly the guy sitting there seriously. It looks very planned out allowing cool details in the background to happen like the sparks.

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.

Mind Map

Mood Board

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.

An environmental portrait is a photograph that captures the person surrounded by their usual environment that relates to them, for instance their workplace or home. The purpose of an environmental portrait is to show a persons life or story in the photos and the background or objects used to show their life in them. They are formal photos where the person in them is making eye-contact with the camera.

Still life is a painting/drawing of a varied amount of objects, typically including fruit, flowers and objects contrasting these in texture such as bowls and glassware.

Artists mostly associated with still life are Paul Cézanne, Henry Matisse and Georges Braque.

Still life comes from the Dutch word stilleven,  created in the 17th century when paintings of objects enjoyed immense popularity throughout Europe.

Emotional

The effect of this image makes me feel uncomforted because it is dark, looks cold, gloomy, rough, creates a male stereotype look and how the walls haven’t been cleaned shows unhygienic which also leads to uncomforting. He also has no emotion in his face which makes us feel like he is stopping us from entering.

Visual

Their is a dark, abandoned look to the photograph by having the bottom of the photo really dark an the overall photo dark with the man staring straight at the camera in the middle and the only light source being the sunlight through the windows above. Everything in the background looks old, industrial, rusty, stained or has graffiti on.

Technical

The two pillars and the perspective help create symmetry on the photo because it keeps the man in the middle with equal objects on each side. The light is used from different side angles, (left and right of his body), with one coming in from behind showing us that he is the main subject in the photograph.

Conceptual

The portrait captured the essence of Krupp’s character, making him look like the embodiment of evil. He took this photo because he was Jewish and Krupp was a convicted Nazi war criminal. But eventually after many refuses, Newman agreed as a form of personal revenge. It then later became one of the most controversial and significant images of it’s time.

Contextual

Newman was very popular for using his skillful techniques such as natural light. His work was influenced by the work of the Cubists, including Picasso, influenced the way he structures a photograph. He is mostly important for pioneering and popularizing the environmental portrait.

some of his work:

– Image Analysis.

1963

-Alfred Krupp is the man in the photo

Emotional-

• cold – lighting the building looks cold.
• intimidating- him staying at us almost thinking.
• harsh- white lighting
• I do like it, its intruiging.

Visual-

• dull
• train factory, looks broken down.
• man sat inside in the centre.
• daylight coming through glass sky pannels.
• looks like it goes far back
• looking up leaning on his hands angry looking.

Technical-

• natural lighting, coming through the roof.
• balanced compostion, by the 2 pillars either side holding him in.
• he is the point of focus and the further we go back the more detail we lose.
• organised and structered.
• light from above shine down with side lihgting which creates a gloomy effect.
• in a train station you would want good lighting
• triangular composition which is strong and harsh.
• makes us center and focus on i’m and his expression.
• similarity lighting to a church.
• lots of visual detail up close.

Conceptual-

• Jewish photographer Arnold Newman was commissioned by Newsweek to take a portrait of Alfred Krupp, a convicted Nazi war criminal. At first, Newman refused, but eventually, he decided to take the assignment as a form of personal revenge.
• Upon seeing the portrait, Krupp was furious. Nevertheless, the image was published and became one of Newman’s most famous works. The portrait served as a powerful reminder of the atrocities committed during World War II and the individuals who were responsible for them.
• Alfred Krupp designed and developed new machines, invented the spoon roll for making spoons and forks, and manufactured rolling mills for use in government mints.

Contextual-

• 1963
• Alfried Krupp, the son of Gustav Krupp, was born in Essen, Germany, on 13th August, 1907. After studying engineering in Munich and Berlin he joined his father’s company, Friedrich Krupp AG, that by the First World War was Germany’s largest armaments company.
• Krupp and his father were initially hostile to the Nazi Party. However, in 1930 they were persuaded by Hjalmar Schacht that Adolf Hitler would destroy the trade unions and the political left in Germany. Schacht also pointed out that a Hitler government would considerably increase expenditure on armaments. In 1933 Krupp joined the Schutzstaffel (SS).
• As a result of the terms of the Versailles Treaty the Krupp family had been forced to become producers of agricultural machinery after the First World War. However, in 1933, Krupp factories began producing tanks in what was officially part of the Agricultural Tractor Scheme. They also built submarines in Holland and new weapons were developed and tested in Sweden.
• During the Second World War Krupp ensured that a continuous supply of his firm’s tanks, munitions and armaments reached the German Army. He was also responsible for moving factories from occupied countries back to Germany where they were rebuilt by the Krupp company.
• Krupp also built factories in German occupied countries and used the labour of over 100,000 inmates of concentration camps. This included a fuse factory inside Auschwitz. Inmates were also moved to Silesia to build a howitzer factory. It is estimated that around 70,000 of those working for Krupp died as a result of the methods employed by the guards of the camps.
• In 1943 Adolf Hitler appointed Krupp as Minister of the War Economy. Later that year the SS gave him permission to employ 45,000 Russian civilians as forced labour in his steel factories as well as 120,000 prisoners of war in his coalmines.
• Arrested by the Canadian Army in 1945 Alfred Krupp was tried as a war criminal at Nuremberg. He was accused of plundering occupied territories and being responsible for the barbaric treatment of prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates. Documents showed that Krupp initiated the request for slave labour and signed detailed contracts with the SS, giving them responsibility for inflicting punishment on the workers.
• Krupp was eventually found guilty of being a major war criminal and sentenced to twelve years in prison and had all his wealth and property confiscated. Convicted and imprisoned with him were nine members of the Friedrich Krupp AG board of directors. However, Gustav Krupp, the former head of the company, was considered too old to stand trial and was released from custody

-sparticuseducational.com