The Portrait
Defining Beauty Through Acedon
Richard Avedon was a very successful fashion magazine photographer who honored women. His beginning in women’s fashion photography began with his younger sister Louise. His style soon developed and his most recent work still shares aspects of the work he did early on in his career. Avedon was later discovered by Alexey Brodovich, an art director of Harper’s Bazaar. He began shooting for them and his shots “animated women with spirit and determination… in which the models inhabited the clothes like characters in a movie.” The photography was all about the clothes and Avedon knew that but at the same time the sophistication of the scene mesmerized observers. Avedon had a certain tone to his work that many struggle to recreate if not fail at completely. He never stopped experimenting with photography and always regarded the women he shot as well.
Self-portrait as Obscure Object of Desire
A self-portrait is typically a photograph of oneself (at least in the realm of photography), so when I read that Jack Pierson released a book titled Self Portrait I figured that there would be images of himself. But that was not the case. Instead, the photos depicts desire - “when it begins, how long it lasts, what it tells us about ourselves or, at least, about the artist.” He thought that by eliminating his own likeness for his photos conveyed the idea of cultural construction of the individual and identity. I personally think that’s a little deep for the normal person to understand. But then again, he is a fine art photographer. The idea however also related to today’s technological era with the idea that your personality can hide behind any face online. There is always the lust for the person in the pictures online, even if that is not who we truly are. A very interesting and true point.
Is That Portrait Staring at Me?
Fiona Tan did something very interesting here. She decided to go to a prison and take about 300 people’s “picture” for her video portrait project titled Correction. Guards and inmates would stand in front of her camera motionless which would give the illusion of a photograph but it would still have small amounts of motion in them. This kind of reminds me of Harry Potter paintings. Additionally this project game a whole new meaning to doing time. This project has been displayed in the few places, but the first was in Chicago. One thing that is interesting is the fact that Tan decided to shoot her video in a portrait orientation. Typically video is taken horizontally but she tipped her camera on its side like a lot of portraiture we see today. Essentially theses are filmed photographs, and give off a strange vibe to the viewer that I feel might bring in an extra essence of emotion to the photo (video).
A Pantheon of Arts and Letters in Light and Shadow
Irving Penn was a celebrity photographer who in my opinion didn't let that status of this subjects get to him. Additionally, he felt like his subject wasn't the object in front of his camera lens, but rather the reader hundreds, or thousands of miles away. Penn is now reaching the end of his life and it working hard to secure his legacy by selling and donating his work to museums. The large majority of his subjects consisted of major cultural figures. So many in fact that he became somewhat of one himself. Just like another photojournalist in this section, Penn's success is largely attributed to Vogue magazine.
A Photographer’s Lie
Personal diaries attempt to harness what is true or desired out of life. Photographs attempt to do the same thing. And they both succeed at this. We see many photographers document their lives, singing is insightful details about their loved ones, home, city, etc. Annie Leibovitz like many photographers set out to do just this in her book A Photographers Life. She tried to make this book a hybrid of personal and professional photos but only created a mirage of perverse opposition. It seemed to fail to live up to the artists intention and instead of getting a very detailed look into her life we saw more of a magazine-esque glimpse. Though her images are viewed as very powerful.
Embalming the American Dreamer
In this Essay, photographer Katy Grannan searched for subjects by displaying advertisements in local papers. Most of her answers from her ads were from young women in the twenties looking to be photographed. It was said that many people most likely called Grannan because the relationship between a photographer and the subject as a model was a sense of rebellion. As stated, many subjects shot by Granna opted to pose nude for her. Grannan would find out personal information about the lives of her subjects, as her work grew connection on the documentation of a generation of women.
Summary
Portraiture is such a funny little thing. Portraits of people of course are the most popular ones, and that’s what we see here. The way that photographers approach the portrait however varies a lot more than we appreciate. The glamour shots, the magazine shots, the self portraits, better known today as a selfie. In each of these photos whether they are of the photographer themselves or not all have a part of the photographer in them. Their style, their beliefs, their idea, their friends, behaviors, them as a whole. Who is to limit the creativity of the portrait? Nobody it seems. And that is exactly what we see here too with these photographers.
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