Richard - Art 117

Project 5 Examples

August Sander - http://www.augustsander.com/ - This portrait of a painter is done in the documentary style. It is meant to artistically depict the individual in the occupation that he performs. The picture is split down the middle; the woman in the painting balances the man painting her. The high contrast of this photo makes the image pop.

Diane Arbus -http://diane-arbus-photography.com/ - This photograph shows a close up of a well-dressed woman. The style of her clothing and the manner in which the picture is taken suggests that it is of the past. The woman is centered in the frame, so it is clearly staged. Yet, her expression and her gaze show no acknowledgment of the camera. The buildings in the background provide this picture with context.

Richard Avedon - http://www.richardavedon.com/ - This is a staged and very stylized portrait. The fact that the frame is still visible in this picture suggests that it was unaltered from the time it was shot. The subject lacks expression, but is acknowledging the camera with his straightforward stare. This photo is shot in somewhat of a documentary style. The man, however, seems to be a stand-in for a variety of subjects.

Alec Soth - http://www.alecsoth.com/ - This is an emotive portrait of a young man. It is shot in color, though the colors are muted and almost the entire background is thrown into shadow. The subject is nicely framed by the window. The glass adds intrigue to the picture because of the visible reflections. The boy seems to be looking at whatever is causing these reflections and is unaware of the camera.

Cindy Sherman  - http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/1997/sherman/index.html - This picture is reminiscent of a movie still. The picture, while clearly staged, indicates that the woman is engaged with her surroundings and unaware of the camera. She is pushed all the way to the side of the photograph which gives the picture an active frame. Though her expression indicates that she is frightened, the fact that the picture is shot from below makes the woman an imposing figure. The brick wall on the opposite side helps to balance the shot.

Tina Barney - http://www.janetbordeninc.com/artists/Barney - This portrait embraces strong color which adds  to the emotion evoked by it. The boy is balanced by the picture hanging on the wall next to him. Perhaps, the child with the similar expression is meant to mirror him (or is him). The picture has many strong vertical lines. These, coupled with the ornate carvings on the wall give the context of this picture an aura of grandeur. 

Yousef Karsh

Yousef (Josef) Karsh, also known as Karsh of Ottawa, was a portrait photographer responsible for some of the most famous portraits ever taken. He, in fact, made over 15,000 portraits during his career as a photographer. While the man led a long, 93-year life (1908-2002), his artistic talents were recognized early. By the age of 20 his family arranged for him to apprentice with a portrait photographer. As a side note, his brother was also a professional photographer. The subjects of Yousef’s photos were often famous people, including Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, and Andy Warhol (see below). In fact, of the 100 most notable people of the century, named by the International Who’s Who 2000, Karsh had photographed 51.

Karsh took his pictures in black and white. He often shot his subject from the waist up, or higher, taking the pictures at an angle to the person. As a result, he deliberately had his subjects stare slightly off-center. Karsh was a master of light, often using theatrical lights, and style. He frequently lit the faces and hands of his subjects separately. In this way, his pictures were dramatic, rich in light and shadow. Karsh was able to glorify his subjects by giving them a sense of power. The sheer size of the photos helped him to do this, as he enjoyed working with large format cameras. It has been said that Karsh “transforms the human face into legend”.

Project 5 Ideas

For this project I would like to experiment with both self-portraits and portraits of other people. It is likely that the final pictures that I choose will be all of me, all of one other person, or all of different people. While it is possible that I will include full-body shots, more likely I will use an active frame and only show part of myself or the person. My influences for this project come from the images that we viewed in class. Though, for my shots, I would like to examine something that the other artists did not (humor or props, for example).

The photos will be staged, as I wish to have control over them and eliminate motion and blur. While, I will probably default to taking color photographs, I may also experiment with black and white to heighten contrast or get the pictures to appear more like old portraits. Manipulation will be necessary for these photos, but will most likely be limited to minor cropping and reduction of imperfections within the pictures. 

Project 4 Post-Crit

I was very pleased with the way that the class responded to my work. I expected a positive response, and that is what I received. In fact, one of my classmates said, “those pictures are so Richard.” This made me smile. Apparently, I have a distinct style that people are starting to recognize. While I was originally apprehensive about using photographs that were so seemingly simple and devoid of color, I think they worked well as a group and gave my viewers the opportunity to concentrate on other elements of the pictures including form, frame, and negative space. 

If I were to do something differently, it would be to have a better fifth photograph to use in my set. Not surprisingly, “Switch” came up in discussion of my work quite a lot. This was perhaps the weakest photo of the group and the one that stood out among them. A reshoot of the same wall space would likely have similar results, so I would choose a different object. Additionally, it might have been worthwhile to make some of my photos more gritty. While some of them (taken in this forensic style) proved to make the viewers uneasy, I wish I could have pursued this more in the remaining ones.