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

Landscape

     The genre landscape are photos of anything that is organic.  For example what people think of landscapes are scenery like the coast lines or mountains.  But is also can be man made objects within a scenery.  Typically, people and animals are not shown in a landscape, unless they are relatively small in the image and have been included in the composition to show scale.

example of a typical landscape 

Here of some famous photographer:

Alexander Gardner

Alexander Gardner 

      Alexander Gardner became Brady's assistant for seven years before becoming a photographer himself. "He was manager of Brady's Washington, D.C., gallery until the American Civil War broke out in 1861."  Alexander Gardner became the proper photographer of the Union Pacific Railroad.  He also took photographs of the Civil War and he comprised of a hundred photographs by himself and also other photographers working with him helped out.  During the war he was taking photos of people who were dead and the battles grounds where they fought.

       He is best known for his photographs of the American Civil War, American President Abraham Lincoln, and the execution of the conspirators to Lincoln's assassination.  Gardner made powerful images of the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, including the bodies of fallen soldiers. Although the Mexican and the Crimean Wars had been documented photographically, this was the first time a battlefield had been photographed before the dead were buried.

Confederates 

Abraham Lincoln

websites:
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=1928

http://www.suite101.com/content/alexander-gardner-a156648

Edward Burtynsky

Edward Burtynsky

Edward Burtynsky is another photographers that takes pictures of landscapes. But he is different because he take pictures of sublime scenery.  "His imagery explores the tangled link between industry and nature, combining the raw elements of mining, quarrying, manufacturing, shipping, oil production and recycling into eloquent, highly expressive visions that find beauty and humanity in the most unlikely of places."Edward Burtynsky produces large-scale, richly-coloured prints of exquisite and breathtaking detail.

Also how he shoots his pictures is with a crane and helicopter basically he is shooting at a high point perspective.

AMARC #5

Alberta Oil Sands

websites:

http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/Sections/Statement_CV/Bio.html

http://www.ballardian.com/edward-burtynsky-oil-a-ballardian-interpretation

Florian Maier-Aichen

Florian Mier-Aichen

Florian Mier-Aichen also take obscure shots like Edward Burtynsky where there are aerial shots and crazy angles.  "Maier-Aichen’s work addresses issues of globalisation and virtual perception.  Maier-Aichen’s coastline is far from postcard perfect: a virgin beach lined with superhighway and luxury homes expanding into the misty distance."