For this brief I knew that this would be the most traditional style of photography I would be dealing with, which is not a bad thing, since with the other projects I have been a little different, this one I knew that I wanted to try lots of styles but through lots of practice and research I knew that I wanted traditional portraits.
My research had to start with one of the most famous portrait photographs of all time, Afghan Girl, by Steve McCurry which is totally stunning to be gazed at, yet I think it’s more the expression that I am very interested in when it comes to inspiring me for this project. Emotion has always been a tricky subject in photographs, since telling somebody to “say cheese” seems a little redundant and fake, and never really produces a convincing photograph. Posing for photographs does have its place in the photographic world, but personally for pictures that focus on somebody’s face there should be a focus on the natural, unaltered human face. Personally I think that when a photo is taken it is to convey a message about the people in the photo or it can be styled and therefore showing the photographers abilities.
His work as a whole has been very helpful in enhancing my abilities to determine how powerful one simple expressionless face can be.
Another inspiration for my final pictures came from August Sander who incorporates more of the body into his images, but the types of people he photographs and the amount of detail he puts into every single picture is why I feel so inspired, looking at his works show me that every single image has a story to it, and this is one of the reasons I love photography; every image and person in it has a story to tell.
These photos show such power in the emotions on the people’s faces, this is why my final images show emotion in there expressions, maybe not on the same serious tone, but I do like to have my own unique spin on every single picture I take.
For these four photos I tried to range my abilities as a portrait photographer:
This photo of myself was a way of seeing how I personally would react to a natural picture, since i wanted to have a very neutral face in this picture, because a fake smile would never mean as much as a natural blank expression. I captured most of my chest because i think a portrait would be more than just the face, but the natural state of the body under a camera. Being in the sunny outdoors in a cool hat, it is clear from all elements that I am in a good environment and there is a warmth emitted from this picture, but I love how after all this there can still be this very static look of camera-shy awkwardness, and that is what surprise pictures are all about.
With this image i started to play about with the idea of using a black and white filter to enhance my images, since in this photo there was a lot of natural light, which good for a normal image for this project proved to be problematic, since it was drawing to much attention away from the person in the photo. Solving this problem was easy since when the black and white filter was applied it totally changed the whole image, making it a lot more vibrant and putting all the attention onto the model. The colours are much defined so as well as solving a problem adding this filter has indeed improved this image. I decided on not having my final images in a filter is because of the limitations it gives, i like to have lots of creative freedom, when black and white colours are very constricting.
Now this picture i took to mess about with higher angles in my photography, portraiture is very subjective, so this image to some may look a little evil, but I think this just explores how different emotions can be captured by the simple raising of an angle, it just goes to show how remarkable the human face can be, just one simple change can make a massive difference.
For this photo I wanted to have a close up of a face, more like magazine cover or a photo shoot, just to experiment with the idea and features of somebody’s face being a lot more dominate to a photograph.
Final Images
My final images are showing true expression, this is the reason I love them so much, it is my ideal portraits, since there is real emotion shown, through smoking and smiling, you can see it on their faces, that real genuine emotion, I think this brief was a success as i tried a range of styles and techniques and my overall final images are completely honest with themselves and the viewer, which for me in integral.