Portraiture

Portraiture

     Portraiture is a photograph of a person showing some type of expression.  This is creating a description of that person, basically it is a portait of a person expressing through their face.  Portrait photography has been around since the invention and popularization of the camera. Portraits are generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position.  Also it can be expressed through a full body movement. The objective is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the subject.  Sometimes photographers take portraits of people when they are looking straight into the camera but often they are not.  Subjects were generally seated against plain backgrounds and lit with the soft light of an overhead window and whatever else could be reflected with mirrors.  


For example:

Jack Nickelson

Sally Mann

Sally Mann

     Sally Mann took portraits of her three children and husband because she said that she "wants to stick to her root."  This mean to me that she wants to stay close to her family and be different than other artist.  She became a photographer because she wanted to be alone and working on dark a decay art pieces.  She is famous for her portraits but she also shoots landscapes and still life.  She took up photography at Putney, where, she claims, her motive was to be alone in the darkroom with her boyfriend.  Her interest in photography was promoted by her father.


"In this work Mann’s daughter Jessie suspends her activity and gracefully balances a candy cigarette in her hand, the innocent miniature of a blonde and gangling twenty-something beauty. Mann’s expressive printing style lends a dramatic and brooding mood to all of her image."

Candy Cigarette

Justine Kurland

Justine Kurland

    Justine Kurland’s latest work is that she has been taking portraits of aging males, but her muses are often strangers met on the road.  Also in her work she takes portraits but also she includes landscapes as the background.  What she does differently from the beginning of portraits is that she uses landscapes when back then they were just a soft lighting with a blank background.  Also her equipment is more advance since it is in color.  The process of selecting the right location and subject who believe in her vision can take weeks.  She likes to get to know who she is working with because she immerses herself in different cultures.    "Kurland explores the world of hobos, the usually male and often alcoholic eccentrics who have rejected social norms to eke out subsistence existences, traveling illicitly on the railroad and camping in the wild."

websites:
http://www.mocp.org/collections/permanent/kurland_justine.php
http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/kley/george-grosz-fernell-franco11-10-09.asp