Contemporary portraiture

[kminov]

What would be an inspiring example for contemporary LF portraiture?

[adelorenzo]

Check out Greg Heisler's book 50 Portraits.

[Jim Noel]

I am unsure what you really mean by contemporary.
If I wanted to look at good portraits in an attempt to learn what a good one looks like I would look at Arnold Newman and Yousef Karsh.

[mdarnton]

What are you wanting to get out of it? Are you looking to survey the field? Do you want to do studio work? Environmental? Are you looking for ideas? Posing? Lighting? Someone to copy, as a learning device? Entertainment?

And I'm wondering why you've specified "contemporary"? I haven't found a modern "famous" portraitist that I find compelling in the way that so many of the older ones were, and gave up looking to moderns for any inspiration at all. Many of them (like Heisler) seem intent on pumping out GQ magazine style pop-schlock that's more about the cleverness of the photographer than about the subject. For modern, the only stuff that really appeals to me is SOME fashion photography. That and the monthly portrait threads right here on this forum.

[kminov]

What are you wanting to get out of it? Are you looking to survey the field? Do you want to do studio work? Environmental? Are you looking for ideas? Posing? Lighting? Someone to copy, as a learning device? Entertainment?

And I'm wondering why you've specified "contemporary"? I haven't found a modern "famous" portraitist that I find compelling in the way that so many of the older ones were, and gave up looking to moderns for any inspiration at all. Many of them (like Heisler) seem intent on pumping out GQ magazine style pop-schlock that's more about the cleverness of the photographer than about the subject. For modern, the only stuff that really appeals to me is SOME fashion photography. That and the monthly portrait threads right here on this forum.

I am asking for contemporary portraiture exactly because this genre seems to be on pause lately, at least to me. The last great portrait photographer I encountered was Nadav Kander. So perhaps I'm just missing something.

[Lenny Eiger]

I am asking for contemporary portraiture exactly because this genre seems to be on pause lately, at least to me. The last great portrait photographer I encountered was Nadav Kander. So perhaps I'm just missing something.

Yea. Kander is just taking pictures of famous people. They aren't bad, but to suggest its contemporary is a bit of a stretch. There are tones of people doing fine work. However, I am not so interested in what's new. I can't stand Annie Liebovitz, I don't like Avedon, altho' I respect him. I think what's missing is a little depth and understanding and i find that much more in older photographs than in new ones.

August Sander is pretty amazing, as is Dorothea Lange, not to mention Walker Evans. If you can do what they did you will be far ahead of the current crop of commercial photographers.

Lenny

[adelorenzo]

Many of them (like Heisler) seem intent on pumping out GQ magazine style pop-schlock that's more about the cleverness of the photographer than about the subject.

Having looked at his photos, read his book and watched a number of his interviews and talks that is the last thing I'd say about Greg Heisler. I would say that his work is solely about the subject.

Can you elaborate on why you think that?

Also, to the OP: Another suggestion would be Dan Winters Road to Seeing

[Mark Sawyer]

I'd just wander through the monthly portrait threads on this forum. You'll find excellent work in a wide variety of styles from classic to contemporary to undefinable.

[Ari]

What would be an inspiring example for contemporary LF portraiture?

Richard Avedon, to name one.
Bare, unadorned, gets straight to the point.
His fashion work is another story.

[Peter Lewin]

With apologies to previous posters, most of the photographers they mention, such as Avedon, are dead, so they are hardly contemporary. For two living portrait photographers, in black and white, Nicholas Nixon, and in color, Rineke Dijkstra. That said, I'm not one to judge how much portraiture has changed between the classics already mentioned, and the current artists. Oh, and if you don't mind the heavy production values, someone like Annie Leibovitz, for a portrait photographer who creates a unique environment for each of her subjects.