Portraits
For our third assignment, we have been asked to look at portraits.
A portrait is defined as “a likeness of a person, especially of the face, as a painting, a drawing, or a photograph”. It comes from middle French around 1560-70 Portraire = ‘to portray’.
Probably the most famous portrait from the time was the Mona Lisa, painted a few decades before hand in the early 1500’s by Leonardo da Vinci.
This painted portrait has been subject to many theories and speculations over who is meant to be in the painting, why was it painted and some conspiracy theories about hidden messages with in the painting itself.
To me portraits are like synonyms, over the past few hundred years, the technology and styles may have changed but the overall the portrait is still the same.
I looked at several photographers during my research;
Carsten Witte, a German beauty and fashion photographer. His portraits subjects usually are wearing some kind of abstract makeup but the few I did find which looked normally were extreme close ups on faces in black and white. While the picture draws you into the subject, I feel there’s something missing from the images.
Steve McCurry, an American photographic journalist. I remembered him due to one photograph I read about on the 30th anniversary of its publication on the form page of the national geographic magazine. The photo known as ‘Afghan Girl’, the photo is of an Afghanistan girl in a refugee camp in Pakistan during the soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The photo was credited with having a combination grittiness and glamour, with numerous comments made about her green eyes which really draws the viewer right into the photograph. Parallels have been made about it and Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
Danny Santos II, a freelance photographer based in Singapore. He mostly photographs portraiture, editorial and for commercial. One of projects was him going round asking strangers on the street if he could take their portraits, he only asks for their picture nothing else, not their names or anything about them. On his website he describes the story of how he approached each one and asked them for a photo. His portraits are interesting, they are extreme close ups on the subjects face with them having a normal expression, Santos didn’t want them to pose or smile in anyway but to have a normal expression.
Despite all these, I couldn’t find a style that I liked Until I found a Herman Leonard photograph of Frank Sinatra is an everyday setting next to a microphone.
This style lead me too Yousuf Karsh, a celebrity among photographers, his portraits on the famous which are different from the ones I’ve seen. Yousuf managed to capture portraits of people during normal life/events picture where people were just being themselves and it drew me in because each photo tells a story of normality/everyday life of the subject.
My final photographer is August Sander, a German photographer who in in the early 20th century went out and took portrait survey of German life. Taking picture of everyday Germans doing everyday things. The one photo that especially draws me in is one of a German solider, estimated to be taken in 1940. It has a really natural seating, a house, a road and the soldier appears to be sitting on an object on the grass, maybe at a checkpoint of some sort. Despite its estimated to be 1940, his helmet and uniform are pristine and well kept. The soldier also stands out from the blurry background drawing attention to himself, he has a slight smile but nothing to obvious.
When looking at this photo, I can’t help but think of several questions about this subject;
- Who is he/his name?
- Did he volunteer or was he made to sign up?
- What did he do before the war/his family?
- Did he survive the war and if so what did he do with the rest of his life?
- If not, when did he die, where and how?
Its strange how we know very little of this person and yet he’s famous in a sense, a quick Internet search provides no information on the subject. It seems people have tried to identify him but without success.
When I do my practical photography for this brief, I’m not sure whether I want my subject looking at the camera or not but I would like to capture them in a way that tells you about them. Something that helps you understand who they are and what they do from time to time.
Bibliography
“August Sander.” August Sander. Accessed March 11, 2016. http://augustsander.com/.
“August Sander | MoMA.” The Museum of Modern Art. Accessed March 11, 2016. http://www.moma.org/collection/artists/5145.
“August Sander, ‘Soldier’ c.1940, Printed 1990.” Tate. Accessed March 11, 2016. http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sander-soldier-al00067.
Berman, Eliza. “Yousuf Karsh’s Masterful Portraits From Churchill to Hepburn.” Time, March 18, 2015. http://time.com/3684569/yousuf-karsh/.
“Carsten Witte – Google Search.” Accessed March 11, 2016. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=carsten+witte&sa=X&biw=1038&bih=619&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ved=0ahUKEwiz9bnorbjLAhVGdw8KHZq8BtIQsAQIGw.
“Danny Santos II – Freelance Photographer in Singapore.” Accessed March 11, 2016. http://www.dannyst.com/.
“Danny Santos Photography – Portraits of Strangers.” Accessed March 11, 2016. http://dannyst.format.com/portraits-of-strangers.
“Home | Steve McCurry.” Accessed March 11, 2016. http://stevemccurry.com/.
“PHOTOGRAPHY | Carsten Witte.” Accessed March 11, 2016. http://www.carstenwitte.com/.
Society, National Geographic. “Photographer Steve McCurry Biography — National Geographic.” Accessed March 11, 2016. http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photographers/photographer-steve-mccurry/.
“Soldat [Soldier], about 1940 − August Sander − S − Artists A-Z − Online Collection − Collection − National Galleries of Scotland.” Accessed March 11, 2016. https://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/artists-a-z/s/artist/august-sander/object/soldat-soldier-about-1940-al00067.
“The Greatest Portraits Ever Taken By Yousuf Karsh – 121Clicks.com.” Accessed March 11, 2016. http://121clicks.com/inspirations/the-greatest-portraits-ever-taken-by-yousuf-karsh.
“Yousuf Karsh.” Artist. Accessed March 11, 2016. https://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artist.php?iartistid=2833.
“Yousuf Karsh / Photographer /.” Accessed March 11, 2016. http://www.karsh.org/.
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