Portraits in Photgraphy

Portraits in Photography

Whenever people the words portrait photography are said people automatically think and assume that it’s a direct photograph of a model or anyone’s face, however portrait photography is a type of photography which captures many things for example the expression of the person in shot, personality and who the main focus is and moods of the main focus, because of this portrait photography doesn’t have to be the traditional shot of somebody straight on it for example it can be a photograph of an artist’s paint brush or pencil because this is also expressing the personality and who the main focus actually is, another example could be a photograph of a pianists hands. Portrait photography is a type of photography which is able to spread across all the different sections of photography such as documentary and artistic photography, for example it can be used as a piece of information such as a passport or a driving licence but could also be used as a piece of art and expression. A big thing with portrait photography which people can get wrong is that the main focus has to be an attractive and good looking model and that this is what makes the photograph a good photography although this is completely wrong as proven by photographer Bruce Gilden with his project called real people and earlier by photographer Diane Arbus who did a project called unusual people.

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An artist who is famous for his painting of portraits is one of the most famous artist to have ever lived and that is Pablo Picasso, even though he is an artist which has delved into many types of portrait art he is most famous for his colourful surreal portraits which are extension of him and a way which he would express himself, we know this when he said "For those who know how to read, I have painted my autobiography."(3). Pablo Picassos colour surreal images are also a prime example that portraiture can be placed in to many different categories not only as an art or a document but also into many different art movements, his painted portrait work were pieces of art which were placed into cubism, surrealism and expressionism, although at the time these pieces of art were released they would have come into a lot of criticism because of the style, a style which was completely different to any portrait pieces at the time and would have gone against everything someone would thing a portrait should be.

Staying the theme that portrait photography can be split into different types of photography, a person who does this well is a photographer called Steve McCurry who is firstly a documentary photography most famous for his photography and portrait of the Afghan girl, but in his documentary photography he is someone who uses a lot of bright, eye-catching and contrasting colours, a great example of this is a photograph of his which is just a close up portrait of a young boy, even though it is a documentary portrait shot the colours he uses are incredible, the boy is covered in a deep red colour and is standing against a very cold green wall. One of the reasons Steve McCurry may have used these colours and captured them contrasting so well with each other to draw attention to the image and make people concentrate on the image rather than just a quick glance, after the main goal of documentary photography is to tell a story, contain a meaning behind what we can actually see and inform an audience about the chosen topic. "I strive for individual pictures that will burn in people's memories."(4)

A photographer which had a very big impact on portrait photography even to this day is a British photographer called Julia Margaret Cameron, she was a portrait photographer who mainly focused on taking photos of highly known and famous people, this is considered by some people to be the first start of a type of photography which is arguably the most popular now and that’s photographs of celebrities. it isn't just the fact that she took photos of celebrities that we can see in a modern day area they models stance and look are very similar to how a photographer would take a photo of someone famous now days. a good example of this even though it isn't of a famous icon, is an image called Annie, My first success which contain a young girl called Annie who was a daughter of a family who were staying where Julia was, in the image the little girl is pulling a very serious and professional face, her stance is also to the side, both these things are something we can see in modern day portrait photography. something in this image which is very modern and still seen is the lighting and how she contrast the background with the young girl, in the background we can see half is very light and the other half is very dark she almost flips the colours and shades on the model so its creates a contrast.

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Overall portrait photography is the most popular and I think is one of the most influential types of photography, not because of its content but i think because of the fact it’s everywhere, it’s a type of art/photography which has been involved in many different art movements such as cubism, surrealism, expressionism, dada and pop art, it is something that can be considered to be different things such as an art or a document and is at its highest popularity in the modern age with the amount of celebrity photos that are being taken and the fact the average person in the street has a Facebook, twitter, Instagram, snapchat or any other social media which they use as an outlet for a very popular type of portrait photography which is the selfie. I think it’s a type of photography which has got a lot more popular since its beginning as well due to the modernisation of photography, equipment and software, it means it is now available to a very large audience and a lot of different audiences.

bibliography

(1)http://www.featureshoot.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Bruce_Gilden_01.jpg

(2)http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2012/03/08/most-famous-female-photographers/

(3)http://www.theartstory.org/artist-picasso-pablo.htm
(4)http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/photography/7860666/Steve-McCurry.html
(5)https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Annie_my_first_success,_by_Julia_Margaret_Cameron_(restored).jpg