What is your ultimate 4X5 portrait ?

[gilles langlois]

What is your ultimate 4X5 portrait(not head shot) and why?

[Ellis Vener]

By me? Or by someone else? What is yours? And when it comes down to it, why would format matter? A piece of film, a piece of paper, or a camera, is just a medium for transporting an image of an idea.

[Ellis Vener]

To answer your question more directly:My favorite portraitists who work (or worked) regularly in large format are: Nicholas Nixon, Sally Mann, Irving Penn, Arnold Newman, Edward Weston, Timothy Greenfield-Saunders, andPaul Strand. Sometimes William Wegman, Gregory Heisler, and Cindy Sherman and Chuck Close are in that pantheon as well.

[Stewart Ethier]

Arnold Newman's Stravinsky (1946). Unexpected, creative composition.

[Edward Kimball]

I am not sure what format was used for this particular shot, but, Ansel Adams did a wonderful photograph of an old woman behind a screen door. To me, it seemed to capture the feel of poverty in the desert southwest.

[Scott Walton]

Karsh did some fine work also!

[Garry Edwards]

To me, the finest portrait ever was by Arnold Newman, showing a demonic Krupps, strongly side lit, against the background of his armanents factory, with strongly converging perspective. Apparently Herr Krupps wasn't too happy about it! I photograph products rather than people, but if I had the capability to have taken that shot I would give up my speciality tomorrow. In my view, most so-called portrait photographers are sadly lacking in both technique and creativity. I don't know whether the Krupps portrait was shot on 5"x4", but as Ellis says, what does it matter?

[Mark Minard]

Ok I'll bite... I really love Mapplethorpe's portraits of Isabella Rossellini and Sandra Bernhardt, although I'm not sure exactly what format was employed.

[David R Munson]

Horst P. Horst! I think he worked in lf(?)

[M.]

Paul Strand's portrait of Susan Thompson standing in the kitchen with her apron on.