Environmental portraiture is a photographic style that captures subjects within their natural surroundings, often blending the person’s environment with their identity. Unlike traditional studio portraits, which focus primarily on the subject, environmental portraits reveal more about a person’s lifestyle, personality, and mood, depending on the location, camera angles, what’s in the frame, and what they are doing.
August Sander and Typologies
One of the first photographic typological studies was by the German photographer August Sander, whose project ‘People of the 20th Century’ produced volumes of portraits entitled ‘The Face of Our Time’ in 1929. Sander categorised his portraits according to their profession and social class.
August Sander
August Sander was a German photographer whose work documented the society he lived in. Lauded as one the most-important portrait photographers of the early 20th century, Sander focused his gaze on bricklayers, farmers, bakers, and other members of the community.
“Nothing seemed to me more appropriate than to project an image of our time with absolute fidelity to nature by means of photography,” he once declared. “Let me speak the truth in all honesty about our age and the people of our age.”
Born in Herdorf, Germany on November 17, 1876, Sander learned photography during his military service in the city of Trier. By 1910, he had moved to a suburb of Cologne, spending his days biking along the roads to find people to photograph. By the time the Nazi regime rose to power in the 1930s, Sander was considered an authority on photography and recognized for his book Face of Our Time (1929)
Image Analysis
Technical: Natural lighting (clouded daylight), shallow depth of field Visual: Warm b&w, a mostly dark image – highlights on the subjects Contextual: Working class men – late 19th and early 20th century Conceptual: Typologies – multiple variants of the same thing – in terms of August Sander it’s his portraits
Typologies
What are Typologies?
Typology is the study of various traits and types, or the systematic classification of the types of something according to their common characteristics.
A photographic typology is a single photograph or more commonly a body of photographic work, that shares a high level of consistency. This consistency is usually found within the subjects, environment, photographic process, and presentation or direction of the subject.
When talking about photography, texture refers to the visual quality of the surface of an object, revealed through variances in shape, tone and colour depth. Texture brings life and vibrancy to images that would otherwise appear flat and uninspiring.
I encountered some issues on Lightroom regarding my files. Due to some files getting corrupted and overwritten, I ended up screenshotting the raw images and having to upload them without editing. Despite this, some of the photos still turned out nicely and look effective without any edits.
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Texture Homework
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Brett Weston
Brett Weston was an American photographer known for his black-and-white landscape and abstract photography. Born in 1911, he was part of the Weston family of photographers, including his father, Edward Weston. Brett’s work often emphasized form, texture, and light, and he had a unique style that set him apart from his contemporaries. He was known for his keen eye for detail and his ability to capture the essence of natural and man-made subjects. Throughout his career, he experimented with different photographic techniques and was influential in the development of modern photography.
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My Photos
Inspired by Brett Weston, I took a camera outside and photographed natural things with varied textures. I ended up taking photos that looked very reminiscent of his, due to the nature of this style of photography.
I took the photos on a cloudy afternoon, by which it was starting to get dark. I struggled to get clear images and balance the ISO, aperture and shutter speed. Some photos I took underneath trees, whilst others were in the natural light, which resulted in me constantly having to experiment with the camera settings and adjust to the changing light.
Brett WestonMy Response
I exported the images to Lightroom and put them in black and white, then edited them to bring out the texture within each photo as much as possible. I experimented with the ‘Basic’ editing settings until I settled on the look of each image that felt right.
For these photos (above), I used flash, as it allowed me to get sharper images, but unfortunately I couldn’t get them completely clean. Brett Weston had captured some images of mushrooms as well, and I thought they were a perfect subject to capture natural texture.
A camera obscura is a simple device that creates an image by allowing light to pass through a small opening into a darkened room or box. When light from an external scene enters the box, it projects an inverted image of that scene on the opposite wall.
Nicephore Niepce
Nicéphore Niépce was a French inventor who is often credited with creating the first permanent photograph. In 1826 or 1827, he developed a process called heliography (later known as photography) and made the first successful photo, titled ‘View from the Window at Le Gras’. This image was captured on a pewter plate coated with a light-sensitive substance, and it required an exposure time of about 8 hours.
Niépce’s work laid the foundation for the development of modern photography, which was later improved upon by others like Louis Daguerre. His contribution is considered one of the earliest breakthroughs in the art and science of photography.
Louis Daguerre
Louis Daguerre was a French inventor and artist who is best known for inventing the daguerreotype, the first practical and widely used photographic process. In 1839, he introduced this method, which produced sharp, detailed images on polished metal plates. The daguerreotype was a huge breakthrough because it significantly reduced exposure times and made photography accessible to the public.
Daguerre’s process made photography more reliable and reproducible, and it quickly became popular around the world. As a result, he is often considered one of the “fathers of photography.” His invention played a key role in making photography a mainstream medium, influencing both art and technology.
Daguerreotype
A daguerreotype is an early type of photograph created on a shiny metal plate, usually made of copper and coated with a thin layer of silver. The image was formed by exposing the plate to light in a camera, then treating it with chemicals to reveal the photo.
The process produced very clear, detailed images, but each daguerreotype was a one-of-a-kind, unique picture (you couldn’t make copies). It was popular in the 19th century for portraits and became the first widely used method of photography.
Daguerreotypes were highly reflective and had a mirror-like finish, so they often looked different depending on the angle you viewed them from.
Henry Fox Talbot
Henry Fox Talbot was a British inventor and one of the pioneers of photography. He is best known for creating the calotype process in the 1830s, which was the first photographic method that allowed for the production of multiple copies from a single negative image.
Unlike the daguerreotype, which created a unique, one-of-a-kind image, the calotype used paper coated with light-sensitive chemicals to create a negative image. This negative could then be used to make multiple positive prints, which was a huge step forward in the development of photography. Talbot’s process was a key development that led to modern photographic techniques, especially the use of negatives and prints.
He is often considered one of the co-founders of photography, alongside figures like Louis Daguerre, though his approach to photography was different.
Richard Maddox
Richard Maddox was an English scientist and photographer who made a key contribution to the development of photography by inventing the dry plate process in 1871. Before his invention, photographers used wet plates that had to be prepared and exposed while still wet, which was messy and time-consuming.
Maddox’s dry plate was coated with light-sensitive chemicals and could be stored for a period of time before being exposed in the camera. This made photography much more convenient and practical because photographers no longer had to prepare plates on-site. His invention laid the foundation for modern photographic film, making photography more accessible and helping to speed up its development into the mass medium we know today.
George Eastman
George Eastman was an American inventor and businessman who revolutionized photography by making it affordable and accessible to the general public. In 1888, he introduced the Kodak camera, a simple, easy-to-use camera that came pre-loaded with film. After taking pictures, the user could send the whole camera back to Eastman’s company to have the film developed and printed, and then get the camera reloaded with new film.
Eastman’s innovation made photography something ordinary people could do, not just professionals. He is credited with popularizing amateur photography and helping to create the modern photography industry. His company, Eastman Kodak, became one of the biggest names in photography for much of the 20th century.
Kodak (Brownie)
The Kodak Brownie was a simple, inexpensive camera introduced in 1900 by George Eastman’s company, Kodak. It was designed for beginners and made photography accessible to the general public. The Brownie used roll film, which made it easy to take multiple pictures without needing to load individual glass plates, like earlier cameras.
The Brownie was small, lightweight, and easy to use, with just a few simple controls. It was aimed at everyday people, encouraging them to take snapshots of their lives. The camera’s affordable price and user-friendly design helped make photography popular and widespread. It’s often seen as one of the key devices that brought photography to the masses.
Digital Photography
The evolution of digital photography began in the 1960s and 1970s with early experiments in converting light into digital signals. In 1975, Kodak engineer Steven Sasson created the first digital camera, though it was large and produced very low-quality images. The 1980s saw the first commercial digital cameras, but they were expensive and had low resolution compared to traditional film.
In the 1990s, digital cameras became more affordable and popular. Compact digital cameras, with digital sensors and LCD screens, allowed consumers to take and view photos easily, replacing film cameras for many users. This decade also saw the rise of digital cameras in other devices, including early cell phones.
The 2000s brought the rise of digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras, which offered high-quality photos with interchangeable lenses, catering to both professionals and serious enthusiasts. Meanwhile, camera phones started to improve, and by the late 2000s, smartphones with built-in cameras became commonplace, allowing millions of people to capture and share photos instantly.
Today, digital photography is dominated by smartphones, which continue to improve in quality thanks to advanced sensors, AI, and software features like portrait mode and low-light capabilities. Camera technology has also advanced with features like 4K video, mirrorless cameras, and new types of image processing, making photography more accessible and versatile than ever before.
Autofocus is a camera feature that automatically adjusts the lens to make the subject of your photo sharp and clear, so you don’t have to focus manually.
Manual focus is when you adjust the lens yourself to make the subject of your photo sharp and clear, instead of the camera doing it automatically.
Focal Length
Focal length is the distance between the camera lens and the image sensor when the lens is focused on a subject. It affects how zoomed in or out your photo looks.
A shorter focal length (like 18mm) gives a wide view, while a longer focal length (like 200mm) makes things appear closer, like zooming in.
Aperture
In photography, the aperture is the opening in the lens that allows light to enter the camera and onto the the sensor or film.
Or to put it simply, aperture is the opening through which light passes into the camera.
F-stops
Aperture is measured in f-stops.
The ‘f’ in f-stops stands for focal length.
f-stops are the size of the hole which lets light in through the camera.
Depth of Field
Depth of field is what’s in focus, in front and behind the subject.
Settings: Shutter Speed 1/45, Aperture 5.6, ISO 400
Settings: Shutter Speed 1/3, Aperture 22, ISO 400
Settings: Shutter Speed 1/180, Aperture 2.8, ISO 400
Ralph Eugene Meatyard
Meatyard made his living as an optician, born in 1925 and died in 1976. He was a member of the Lexington Camera Club and pursued his passion for photography outside the mainstream. He experimented with various strategies including multiple exposures, motion blur, and other methods of photographic abstraction. Two of his series are particularly concerned with focus and depth of field, both stretching the expressive potential of photography, film and cameras when looking with the ordinary world.
ISO controls the amount of light your camera lets in, and therefore how light or dark photos turn out to be. The ‘base’ value of ISO is typically around 100, usually used for sunny outdoor photos or high lighting shoots. For darker / low lighting shoots, ISO 1600 or above is best.
If the ISO is too low – such as the ISO 200 image below – photos can come out too dark or blurry. If the ISO is too high – such as the ISO 6400 image below – photos can turn out grainy or noisy.
Noise
Visual ‘noise’ by definition is ‘excessive and irrelevant visual information that can distract, confuse, or overwhelm an observer’. In photography it usually takes the form of grain.
Experimenting with ISO
To experiment with ISO, I took a camera and chose a few subjects to photograph. I found I got the best results (of differences between the ISO settings) in a dark room photographing an LED music deck.
I held the camera in the same position and repeated the same shot using a range of ISO settings, and these were my results.
