Contemporary portraiture

[Mark Sampson]

Well... as far as 'improving' the genre, who has surpassed Hill & Adamson? or Nadar?
When considering portraiture you need to know who's paying for it.
The sitter, as in the thousands of commercial portraits I made at the beginning of my career?
An editorial client, as in Newman, Penn, Avedon, Heisler, Leibovitz et al?
Or is it an art project on the photographer's part, done on their own nickel?
Because the nature of the portrait made is shaped by those answers, and must be considered when discussing the value of the work.

[Tim Meisburger]

A lot of people confuse reportage as portraiture. Dorothea Lange is a good example of someone I would not consider a portraitist in the sense you might think of Karsh or Nadav Kander (who I think is doing more than just photographing "famous people").

[kminov]

I like Kander for the subtle expectation in his photos. You can actually see the connection he has with his subjects. It's the ultimate mastery to me.

[Greg Miller]

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Alec Soth. And yes, Greg Miller (no relation to me although we communicate on occasion).

[Lenny Eiger]

The issue here is that we have an art form that is missing key components of a genre. We want it to be all inclusive, which seems to be a good thing, yet we fail to identify a goal. What should a portrait be, or do.

Most of the famous people give the photographer 2-5 minutes of their time. That's it. The challenge is how much you can capture instantly. It's not that deep of an idea.

By contrast, Walker Evans spent three weeks trying to figure out who his subjects were before he photographed them. It shows. I happen to like them better. I could do without a lot of the more famous portrait artists, and the snapshot folks. But that's a personal choice.

My point is that without some sort of a goal, there is no way to judge success. My goal in portraiture is to convey as much of the person as possible, all the way down deep if you can. I don't suggest that I invented this, not for a moment. However, this is by no means universally accepted as the aim of portraiture.Without one, we can't compare Kander to Sander, or Miller to Miller ;-)

Lenny

[swmcl]

Lenny,

Would it be that in an effort to portray something of 'the soul' or 'character' of the person in a portrait that one would need something of them in the photo with them ? ie. an environmental portrait rather than a photo with a blank palette of a background and zero props ? I think personally that hanging a sheet behind the person and taking a head and shoulders shot is pretty much reportage and almost cant show forth the 'soul'. My preference is for those who take a photo of someone in their locale or with props or on a location that we or their loved ones can associate them with intimately. Taking a photo of me on a yacht is not as expressive of my life or 'soul' as me with my things and certainly a plain background shot of me is best suited to my passport !

The goal that I am identifying with here is obviously to show forth the personality as humanly as possible. Some of the photographers mentioned in this thread I would think are more reportage photographers in my view. Walker Evans would be more contemporary than August Sander for me. I think that over history we've moved (on the whole) more from the reportage to trying to get the reaction of, "Oh Yes! That's sooo so-and-so" ... perhaps even to the point of creating photos such that those viewing them may have their understanding of the person extended.

Gee I find it hard to express things sometimes (but I am trying even so) !

[macolive]

Although not LF, I like Platon's work. Very simple, very direct.

[Toyon]

Karsh said that the portrait was about the relationship between the photographer and the subject. As you know the subject better, the images will become more nuanced and varied. This is not to say that a portrait of someone you don't know well can't be good, but that it will reflect that unknowingness implicitly.

The issue here is that we have an art form that is missing key components of a genre. We want it to be all inclusive, which seems to be a good thing, yet we fail to identify a goal. What should a portrait be, or do.

Most of the famous people give the photographer 2-5 minutes of their time. That's it. The challenge is how much you can capture instantly. It's not that deep of an idea.

By contrast, Walker Evans spent three weeks trying to figure out who his subjects were before he photographed them. It shows. I happen to like them better. I could do without a lot of the more famous portrait artists, and the snapshot folks. But that's a personal choice.

My point is that without some sort of a goal, there is no way to judge success. My goal in portraiture is to convey as much of the person as possible, all the way down deep if you can. I don't suggest that I invented this, not for a moment. However, this is by no means universally accepted as the aim of portraiture.Without one, we can't compare Kander to Sander, or Miller to Miller ;-)

Lenny

[DrTang]

I am highly suspect when one claims they captured the 'soul' or 'true character' of a person in a photograph...or, actually..when one 'didn't'

they are all photographs of people and even if I dress the sitter up and put them in front of a crazy backdrop..or make them jump.. or dress them in black..or whatever..it is still, and will always be a photograph of that person's current true character - meaning.. they sat there..they let me dress them..they let me put up that background.. so it is their true charactor to let it happen or maybe not complain about it

I think people judge portraits based on if the photo fits into their mindset of the person



for me..police mug shots are the highest achievement in contempory portrait photography

they are telling, honest and even tell a little story

Would it be that in an effort to portray something of 'the soul' or 'character' of the person in a portrait ...

[AtlantaTerry]

One of my big influences was Karsh of Ottawa. I prefer his black and white work. To me, his color work pales in comparison.

I had the honor and pleasure of meeting him once. Back in the early '80s a local pro color lab brought him to town to give a presentation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yousuf_Karsh

One of my portraits in the Karsh style:
Polish director Marek Kedzierski by AtlantaTerry, on Flickr

Polish theatre director Marek Kedzierski was in Atlanta for some workshops in the autumn of 2006.
I arranged a sitting with him. My goal was to create a portrait in the style of the late Karsh of Ottawa.

camera: Minolta DiMage A2
Photoshop filter: red (to amplify skin tones)
lights: two Alien Bee 800 strobes with normal reflectors, no soft box, diffusion, etc.

light #1: far behind his right shoulder to just barely divide him from the blackness by putting some light on his right ear and knuckles; this kind of light is called a kicker

light #2: behind his left shoulder & actually aimed at a reflector flat that was next to his right shoulder. This one light not only provided the key but some fill.