This chapter discusses portraiture as a tool for decreasing
the distance between the subject and the viewer, and thus increasing their
relation. It poses an important question of whether a photographic portrait focuses
on the subject in the photograph or the photographer shooting the image. It is
peculiar how an audience often remembers a piece for the photographer who took
it rather than the subject in the photo looking back at them; it seems as
though a member of the audience should remember a face better than a name typed
in small print on the placard beside the piece. Lastly, this chapter examines
how the distance between the viewer and the photographed subject has increased
in the present day since the nineteenth century.
Defining Beauty
Through Avedon
This section begins by describing Richard Avedon’s work in
the fashion industry, photographing female runway models as his subject of
interest. His work revolves around the ‘individual’ rather than multiple human
subjects. He began photographing his younger sister and then moved on to other
subjects like Dovima and Penelope Tree, alternating between erotic and godly
portrayals of women.
Self-Portrait as
Obscure Object of Desire
In contrast to Avedon’s work in the last section, this essay
conveys Jack Pierson’s images of “beautiful men” as their bodies alter over a
lifetime. Jack Pierson is one of these photographers whose work primarily
represents a reflection of themselves: “In an attempt to establish a mythology
of self, Mr. Pierson is presenting new photographs of other men in the manner
of his own portrait, claiming their appearance to represent his own identity.”
His images bring about the idea of a ‘constructed’ identity, something
nonorganic.
Is That Portrait
Staring at Me?
This essay discusses the work of a film and video artist
known as Fiona Tan. Her images are photographs of inmates that have volunteered
to participate in her work. Tan then displays these images on a screen that
displays each image for a limited amount of time in a sequence. Her work serves
to dissuade her audience from developing misleading preconceptions of her
subjects.
A Pantheon of Arts
and Letters in Light and Shadow
Irving Penn photographed significant cultural figures that
were prominent throughout the twentieth century. His work eventually caught up
to him and he also came to be remembered as one of these common icons; in other
words, his work with photography influenced his identity as a human being. In
an exhibition at the Morgan Museum in New York, his work portrayed icons W.H.
Auden, Francis Bacon, Marcel Duchamp, Carson McCullers, Igor Stravinsky, and
even Tennessee Williams. He began to build connections with these people
through the process of photographing them, thus exemplifying an instance in
which the photographer’s work affects his life.
A Photographer’s Lie
This essay brings about a good question: What elements
qualify a personal experience as worthy of artistic expression? Many
photographers have expressed their personal experiences in their art in the
form of what this essay coins as a ‘visual diary’. For example, Annie Leibovitz’s
book A Photographer’s Life serves as
a record of images of her loved ones as well as her professional
self-portraits. However, this essay accuses Leibovitz of understating her romantic
relationship with Susan Sontag by not dedicating enough work to her. This
section utilizes this as an example of an instance in which photography fails
to accurately represent the past.
Embalming the
American Dreamer
Although Katy Grannan’s work in portraiture was a staged
practice, one in which she searched for her subjects in local paper
advertisements, it yielded an unintentional and surprising result. Most of the
subjects that answered her ads in the paper were young women in their early
twenties, often having recently graduated from college. Therefore, her
portraiture work grew into a study of this certain kind of age group—a study of
the variety that existed among people walking along similar paths.
I realize that portraiture is one of the more radical genres
of photography in the sense of their subject matter. Perhaps this is because a
portrait of another person is the most shocking image to another person
psychologically; a viewer instinctually relates a lot more to an image of
another person rather than that of an inanimate object. Therefore, it would
make sense for portraiture to be a lot more radical than other forms of
photography because its psychological connection makes it the most convenient
tool for sending a lasting message.
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