October 2009 Portraits

[Jay Decker]

If you look at her eyes then they're portraits.

Frank - your work touches me, you capture a personal dimension in each of your subjects that communicates something of the them to me. As a middle age guy, I enjoy seeing nude photographs of beautiful young women. But, your work does not need for the women to be nude - your photographs are strong enough to stand on their own without them being nude. So, why are many of the woman nude? Do they want to be photographed nude? Is there something that you are seeking to capture that them being nude facilitates? Please don't take this as a criticism, I want to understand why.

[Frank Petronio]

I don't know, 7% of the pictures in my book show a boob or something. Does that make me a nude photographer? I think you guys just remember the nudes more, well, because you're guys and images of naked women get more scrutiny than anything else. Web stats don't lie.

Those are old shots I just edited. She's a professional nude model, she travels around the country shooting for money (and she makes good money too), that was the first nude I did so I hired a pro to show me the ropes and get over it. Nowadays I don't ask anyone to do nudes but sometimes they do them at their suggestion and who am I to argue?

So I really don't want to be typecast and I think it's kind of ridiculous to be thought of as a nude photographer when it's only a small aspect of your work.

[Jay Decker]

I don't know...

I do not consider you a photographer of nudes, that is why I asked. And, if they suggested, I would not argue either...

[eddie]

love the last few pages of shots frank.

[Pete Watkins]

Frank, I agree with Jay, I don't regard you as a photographer of nudes, but I love your work. It's original, different and enjoyable. I've got no problems with a bit of raw flesh though (as long as the models are in the right age group, just covering me back in case an old thread is dragged up, sorry).
Best wishes,
Pete

[Vaughn]

I'll post this here instead of in the landscape thread.. This is part of a series of outdoor portraits I have been doing of my boys.

Three Boys, Fern Canyon, 2009
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, CA

A 25 second exposure on 8x10 film using a 300mm lens.
Scanned carbon print

[jnantz]

...

[spiky247]

Mr. Jean-Georges Vongerichten, editorial shoot for the Tatler
Ebony SV45 Ti + Carl Zeiss 135mm f/3.5 @ f/5.6, a crop from the original negative.

[robertmgray]

Spiky, that last one is really great. What kind of film did you use? Portra?

[spiky247]

no, i wish i had portra, this was shot on fuji pro 160C, but it worked out alright since we were shooting in the shade, and the colors weren't over saturated.