Portrait, scale and setting - planning

The "getting started" introduction to P&P stressed the significance of planning and preparation in relation to undertaking the various projects. Richard Maxted, the professional photographer who ran the Studio Photography course at City and Islington College in April 2010 also made it clear that the set and lighting was arranged beforehand using a dummy so that no time was wasted when the model arrived.

Subject
I asked my wife to be my model for this project, and my aim was to take photographs in the style of a conventional portrait - a photograph of the sort that someone would have framed on a table in a house or an office.

I have taken innumerable casual photographs of her, and the ones that stood out are shown below. I wanted to deliberately replicate this soft lit style.

Val in a friends flat in Amsterdam August 2009

Nikon 70-200 mm at 100mm: Iso 250 f4.5 for 1/20th seconds

Observations

She is sitting in a corner between two windows in overcast weather. The light is primarily falling on the right hand side of her face viewed from the front. Light from the other window is backlighting the other side of her hair and face. The lighting is low contrast and her face is somewhat darker than the background.

The pose is relaxed, she is looking directly at the lens with her hand resting on her head. Her hand does not compete visually for attention and is unobtrusive.

Val in a street cafe in Italy May 2010

Nikon 18-70mm at 55mm: Iso 200 f4.5 for 1/160th seconds

Observations

The table was in the shade in an alleyway at midday. The light was again low contrast with soft shadows. The horizontal framing reveals a rather distracting background, but it seemed right in this setting to include a glimpse of the other people and the alleyway.

Location and lighting

I chose our living room as the location for this project using natural light:

• The room is rectangular with patio doors on the narrow side but no windows. My idea was for the subject to sit or stand close to the doors.
• The background should appear dark as the far wall is much further from the light coming in through the doors. I thought that a light background would not suit the type of photograph that I wanted to achieve.
• The camera would be outside on the patio looking into the room, with the light coming from behind the camera onto the subject. This should provide the soft light and muted shadows that I was looking for.
• The patio doors face north east, and close to the patio there is a wall of trees and shrubs which block out light from the sky. As a result, there was likely to be an abnormally cool colour temperature and possibly a green colour cast to the light.

Pose and position of figure

Having tried photography in studio lighting conditions a couple of times in the past, I was aware that for an inexperienced photographer, it is difficult to judge which positions for head, hands and body will be successful visually.

As a result, I decided to use myself as the "dummy" to try out a variety of poses and positions.(This idea was prompted when looking at the display of Robert Mablethorpe's self portraits).

In three sessions, I tried positioning myself in the doorway and various distances back in the room, I tried standing poses and sitting poses in different chairs and on the floor. I also varied the framing between head, head and shoulders, head and torso and whole body.

After studying the results, I selected three of the positions to use in the subsequent photo session with my wife as the model.

Self portait photo selection

I also selected the best self-portraits of each framing (head and shoulders, head and torso, head only, and full body) for reference.

Head and shoulders

Nikon 18-200mm at 70mm: Iso 400 f5 for 1/13th seconds

Head and torso

Nikon 18-200mm at 32mm: Iso 160 f4.5 for 1/15th seconds

Head only

Nikon 18-200mm at 130mm: Iso 160 f5.6 for 1/15th

Full length portrait

Nikon 18-200mm at 40mm: Iso 160 f4.5 for 1/10th seconds

Robert Mablethorpe - Exhibition at Fotografiska Museum, Stockholm

I spent a morning at this exhibition at the beginning of September whilst on a trip to Sweden to visit an old university friend. The exhibition comprises over 200 prints on loan from Robert Mablethorpe Foundation in New York, including self portraits, portraits, nudes, flower photographs.

The OCA tutor for TAOP course had suggested I look at Robert Mablethorpes flower photography, as I had chosen black and white photos of Flowers and Plants for the Elements of Design assignment. I also hoped to see some portrait photography, although I was not familiar with this aspect of his work. I was pleased to find that there was a good selection of self portraits and portraits in the exhibition, several of which were of interest. I paid less attention to the nudes and figure photos which were the largest group in the exhibition.

General notes

Apart from some early Polaroid photos, the self portraits and portraits of celebrities seemed to be studio photographs using artificial light. Several of the flower photographs, on the other hand, gave the appearance of using natural light, with diagonal light and shadows lit as if in a room with skylights. According to the exhibition notes, Mablethorpe used a Hasselbad 500 for most of his work.

Seeing the range of his work together, I was struck by two characteristics:-

- He was influenced by classical art and sculpture in many of his nude studies of men and women, striving to photograph perfection in form (see comments on portrait of Isabella Rosellini below). He was described as a perfectionist in various parts of the exhibition. I felt that some of these were photographs of people as figures with an interesting shape, rather than portraits of people.

- In the self portraits, he often is dressed up and acting a part - as a hoodlum, as a woman etc. Even in his portraits of celebrities, he seemed to look for a dramatic pose, for example Donald Sutherland seems to be acting the part of a gangster or cop.

Self portrait 1988

Unusually amongst the photos in the exhibition, this is a relatively conventional portrait. The photographer is seated in an arm chair directly facing the camera. He is looking directly at the lens, leaning forward slightly with one hand on his knee and the other just below his face. He is simply dressed wearing a dressing gown and slippers. I understand that he died of aids in the following year, 1989. This photograph could have been taken when he was already unwell. The background would appear to be a backcloth which is curved underneath the chair giving a progression from mid- to dark-tone behind the chair. The lighting is mainly from the front so that there are virtually no shadows around the eyes and nose. There are also highlights in the hair suggesting that a lamp may have been placed above the head to make the hair stand out against the background.

Isabella Rosellini

This is a very striking photograph of the head and shoulders of this woman. Her dress, the background and her hair (apart from a highlight) are totally black. Her face and hands are lit so that they are virtually white with only the slightest suggestion of form (I assume that the light skin colour is due to lighting rather than make-up). She is glancing downwards with hands on either side of her face portraying a feeling of sadness or reflection. The reason for the unexpected familiarity of this image did not strike me until I saw the comment noting the resemblance to a catholic madonna.

Donald Sutherland

This is a head and shoulders of the actor, standing sideways and turning to look at the camera. There are hard shadows under the hat, and eyebrow, and across the jacket, creating the impression that the actor is under a film spotlight. The actors expression with a quizzical raised eyebrow implies that he was caught in mid-performance. The plain background however suggests that the photo was taken in a studio photo rather than a film set.

Annie Leibovitz 1983

Unusually photographed in profile, the mid- to light-tones of her face and hair stand out against the dark tones of the leather jacket and a light background. The result is visually striking and it would be interesting to know how he came to this composition. Also, having seen the self portraits in which Mablethorpe is role-playing, I wondered whether the jacket and expression are Annie Leibovitz's natural self or whether there is an element of theatre in the photograph.

Cindy Sherman 1983

This caught my eye not just because the subject is another famous photographer. I appreciated the variety in treatment with the Annie Leibovitz portrait. With Cindy Sherman, her clothes, expression and posture (with hands behind her back) imply a more introverted personality. Visually, the tone of her suit, face and hair are very similar, set off against a medium dark background. The framing is head and torso, which reveals the slightly sinuous posture, with the head leaning to one side, glancing at the camera. As with the previous photograph, it is difficult to judge how much the image is affected by an element of theatre and how much is natural to the subject.

Conclusions

The prominence of self-portraits in his early work made me realize that I should use myself as a subject and guinea pig to experiment with set arrangements and poses for the various projects on this course.

It also prompted me to strive for simplicity in composition and to use tones and colours in a selective way.

Project 1 - Studying portaits

There are so many examples of portaits around, that it is difficult to know what to include.

I started by looking back at my comments on portraits by various photographers.

Irvin Penn

My notes on Irving Penn exhibition at National Portrait Gallery were:-

- Portraits were taken mostly in a bare studio or room in black and white.

- In the later years his portraits were predominantly head and shoulders whereas in the early years most portraits were full length.

- The photographs were almost all taken at eye level.

- With a few exceptions, the photographs were in a square frame.

- He used background light and shadow to create a halo around the head and body, with strong sidelighting. For male subjects, he rarely seemed to add any light to the shaded side of the face/body.

- He often seemed to exaggerate the physical attributes of his subject: Men with prominent noses were taken in profile or using a short focal length e.g. Saul Below, Jacques Yves Cousteau. Alfred Hitchcock was posed sideways sitting down so that the looked as short and fat as possible. Audrey Hepburn seemed to have been photographed with a short focal length that exaggerated her snub nose. Francis Bacon was taken with a short focal length looking up in a way that exaggerated his broad lower face.

Henri Cartier-Bresson at Fondation Henri Cartier Bresson, Paris

In a film about HC-B, a woman whose portrait he had taken described how he held her in conversation. He waited until she was making a point when he suddenly took the photo which became the portrait. It was noticeable in the film that the portraits were taken when the subject was actively talking or gesticulating. Also the individuals were in their normal surroundings, not in a studio or set. This is totally unlike the Irving Penn portraits where most were in studio surroundings. For Bresson it seemed that the photographers purpose was to catch the subject's vitality and manner. For Penn it seemed that the photographer wanted to emphasize the persons physical peculiarities in a more static pose.

Photographic portrait prize 2011 - exhibition at National Portrait Gallery

In this years exhibition, I found quite a few of the photographs interesting:

Lara by Vivi Ableson

I thought that this photograph was quite effective as the teenage girl is facing the camera, with the backs of two much bigger men on either side. The girl is looking straight at the camera in a very natural way, and is showing some interest in her surroundings, whereas the two mens posture implies that they have been sitting for ages and are totally bored. I quite liked the other photographs in the same sequence "Infantes".

Charlie Watts by Michael Donald

The lighting interested me in this photograph. The figure has a "painterly" impact against the dark background. I felt that the artist must have used photographic lighting to achieve this effect, even though the viewer has the impression that the light is coming from a window on the left. The level of illumination on the shaded side of the face, and the darkness of the background do not quite seem natural.

Not even magic could stop the genocide by David Graham

In this photograph, I liked the blue-green colour and graduated lighting of the background which complements the red-brown jacket of the subject. I feel that this background strongly enlivens the visual qualities of the photograph.

Golfing sisters by Anita Corbin

This photograph seemed to capture the style and character of these two striking ladies beautifully, in an unusual composition.

General points I noted from the exhibition was that almost all the photographs were colour, but often muted colours and pastels. I also noted that there were a significant number of portaits of two people together, such as Lena and Katya by Michal Chelbin (maybe undermining the principle that odd numbers are more photogenic.)

Dmitri Kasterine and Mary McCartney - on display at National Portrait Gallery

It was interesting to study the contrasting styles of these photographers.

Dmitri Kasterine

Kasterine was active as a photographer in UK and USA for magazines, and is known for a close association with Stanley Kubrick. The portraits in NPG were mainly of famous cultural figures, painters, writers, actors. The portraits were black and white, they seem to have been taken in nature light with a plain wall or dark plants as background. The figures are sitting or standing still with quite solemn expressions looking directly at the camera. The sitters hands seemed to be particularly prominent (even where the hands are not visible e.g. Martin and Kingsley Amis are both standing with their hands in their pockets). The hands are clasped, or the arms folded, resting on the knees. His portrait of Samuel Beckett epitomises these characteristics.

Mary McCartney

The NPG collection of her photographs are mainly famous figures from the world of dance, fashion and other celebrities. The portraits are in colour, and there is a mix of interior and exterior scenes. The backgrounds of some are quite busy with bookshelves, office furniture etc. The characteristic that I particularly noted with her pictures is that the figures are almost all active. She seems to follow the style of Henri Cartier-Bresson of trying to take a photograph of the person at an expressive moment in a conversation. This style can be seen in her portrait of Billie Jean King.

Nadav Kander

I also reviewed found some interesting portraits on Nadav Kander's website.

In the "Portraits" section, there is an interesting collection of photographs. Most of the subjects are celebrities. He uses muted colours, blurring and lighting to make the subjects seem unreal with unnaturally pale skin colours. To my mind, his aim appears to portray these subjects as "icons" rather than people. In some cases, he even obscures the subject using blur (in the portrait of Robbie Williams), or a handkerchief (in the portrait of Henry Kissinger) to leave just enough of the features visible to allow identification of the subject.

In his series of photographs of "Obama's people" on the other hand, the style is more like an identity card photograph. The subjects are generally three-quarter length, photographed against a plain white background, with flat lighting. The poses and eye contact vary, but these are very different from the photographs of powerful people, sitting in luxury offices, behind large desks. The style and pose makes it seem that these are just ordinary people that one could find in any commercial office block. A strange way to look at the individuals who are responsible for the actions of the most powerful nation.

Conclusions

The range of styles of portrait photography noted above reflects the different intentions of the individual photographers. For me, in the preliminary stages of the course, my objective is to practice and understand the basic parameters of portraits and to appreciate the effects. It is clearly important for me to grasp and express my intentions in planning the photographs.

Chris Marker - Passagers

I have read a number of photography articles in recent months on the annual photography festival in France "Les Rencontres d'Arles 2011". One of these that particularly drew my attention was about a french photographer called Chris Marker and a series of his recent photographs entitled "Passagers" (passengers).

The series comprises photographs of people taken in the Paris subway. In four of these, he noted a similarity between the features and pose of four women passengers with four masterpieces of painting for example the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci and Mademoiselle Riviere by Ingres. I liked the juxtaposition of the painted portraits within the frame of the photographs. This draws the viewer into seeing these women, who are like those we see every day, as extraordinary. It emphasizes their distinctiveness, their features and their beauty.

From a practical viewpoint, the subjects appear to have been unaware that they were being photographed. It is, of course, possible that these poses were arranged deliberately by the photographer, but I see nothing in the photograph to suggest that this is the case.

He (I assume the photographer is male - see below) would seem to have been sitting or standing close to the subjects using a standard range lens. The lighting, which I assume is the artificial lighting in the carriages, would seem to be overhead and does not cast hard shadows.

The biography provided for Chris Marker states that he is now 90 years old, he started out as a writer, journalist and editor. Later he became a film critic, film maker and photographer. Chris Marker however is apparently a pseudonym, and his real name is not disclosed. This hidden identity seems very surprising for someone whose work is so prominent.

Observations

These photographs led me to the thought that the role of much of photography (whether photojournalism, nature, street photography, portraiture, landscape) is to see the world and its life, acting on behalf of the majority of people who are too preoccupied or too busy to look around for themselves. I recognize that some photographers stage manage the image contents to fulfill their objective, and therefore do not operate in this way.

The majority of photographers however are specialists in seeing, looking closely at life and recording the aspects that they find interesting, amusing, shocking, curious etc. hoping that others will want to look at them as well.

This would seem to be a way to distinguish the "photograph" (an image of some aspect of life or the world which possibly will be of interest to others) from "snapshots" (an image of a person or place which has been taken in the same way hundreds of times previously).

This also be a way to distinguish photography from much of painting and sculpture, which aims to create or represent something for particular purposes. Stage managed photography has definite similarity with this creative art.

On this basis, I would categorize many of the famous photographers as great "seers", as they recognized and recorded distinctive features of the world around them, rather than creative artists.