What is Portraiture?
Portraiture is the art of taking or making a picture of someone in the frame. The point of a portrait is to go into depth with the person that is being photographed however with some you focus not only on the person but on the background and this is called a environmental portrait. We are studying portraiture to give us a better understanding of focusing on other things and understanding to frame pictures well and to capture everything I need too. We are also doing it to build up confidence and to ask people to take their photo so later on we have broken the ice with asking people.
The first portrait that comes to mind is when I was in greenwich park with my friends and I took a cool picture of them. The picture was made by me off of my phone. The overall image was quite dark but you can see him and it almost looks like he was a shadow. The image was presented by a landscape phone and it was full body so you can see everything he was doing. It was dark, wide angle, full body, good quality, scenic. I think they have changed because of camera quality and ideas of new generations. Normally I prefer to take pictures when the person is quite far away so you don't see their face and you get the full background and the scenery.
Portrait recreation
EvaluationI found it quite hard to find a suitable photo that i thought i might be able to recreate. Some parts of the recreation were challenging such as finding the clothes and glasses to wear. Also making the picture a bit blurry and the composition. I think it looks similar because they are both in a conservatory and the clothes and facial expressions are almost right. I made it may own by making it portrait instead of landscape to take into account my change in height.
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Nico Froe environmental portraits
Ive tried to do portraits nico inspired by making the people centre of the picture and I've done portraits. However most of them were environmental portraits. I also need to use light more in my photos. I think I have done it quite well though because I have really shown the school and the people in it. I found this task quite difficult because its not easy asking people to take a photo of them which is why they were more environmental portraits.
Nico takes pictures of everyday people in and around SE London and normally they are environmental portraits.Nico frames his images by having the person in the centre of the screen and he always uses light for example the boy on the seat has the light shining on his face. Also the one with the with the mattress has shadows on either side.The background is important because it gives us information about were it is and also shows the emotion the person is feeling.Nico photographs random people who are in an interesting environment.Nico likes to use vibrant backgrounds and clothing.Nico makes south London look like a lively and beautiful place.
The first known photographic portraits
The similarity’s between these photos are that they are both distorted and you can tell they are old. The differences are the poses, one has a serious look and the other is asleep and lying down. The image is a portrait and even though they are old they still are framed off-centre. I think they were made with a daguerreotype camera and they probably had to sit there for a couple of minutes for the image to work. There is nothing noticeable except for the guys hat and hammock however in the left one its just green. They are different colours because they could’ve had different types of cameras or developing processes. For the man on the left i would say he wasn’t t very wealthy as we worked in a family shop and in the picture he doesn’t loom very greet-able. I prefer the photo on the right because there is more to it unlike the one the left which is just a man standing there. If i could ask them anything i would ask them why they thought to take an image of themselves.
Nico inspired photos
These images are nico inspired images because i have tried to capture people when they are nit paying attention with my favorite one being the one with the white car this is because the man is looking the other way and the i also manage to get the shop in with him. However i also like the one with the chair this is because it is very similar to one of nicos images which i really liked.
Tyler Mitchell
Tyler Mitchell's reasons for taking these images is that he wanted to photograph black people at leisure, playing, relaxing, being natural because he wants to see himself in his own photos instead of doing it just for media. For the photographer these images are ones that have been denied history-there are no images like these that have been viewed before because he wants to show something different and unique. He said that the act of visualizing and making these types of images, projecting that image for the world to see is an important act. He wants the normality of the lives of the people shown to exist in public places. Usually these images have been denied he wants the images to have 'freedom'. He wants to change the idea of the lack of representation and wants to correct the imbalance because he wants to show something different. Tyler Mitchell also uses colour very well with the use of lights and objects either he uses very bright colours or he uses colours which are closer to the skin tone of the person he is taking a photo of.
Evaluation
I incorporated bright colors in a few of my images like the third one which we used a bright box and a bright red paper. And also I used light one the first one too shine on his face to make in look halve and halve. I found the task quite difficult but once we started thinking of ideas they turned out pretty good. Some of the images are abstract like the last one you don't really know what's happening but I think it looks good.The last one was my favorite as you can only really see his eye and your not too sure whats happening in the image.
Central London exhibition school trip
Ive learnt that portraits have been used for a very long time and I've learnt about how people see the world in a different way.
portraits cover work
In this cover work me and my friend took a series of images in the dark room this is because it has the red light so it makes a cool effect and with the flash on it makes the room a normal color and the actual light itself red, also when the flash is on it makes the reflective part of my coat pop out.
The element of a portrait
In the top pictures i told Luca to keep a straight face and i composed it central because it was a police mug shot which you cant have a facial expression in the same goes for the passport one. We also used props and made it look like he was holding a sign which is what they do. Another thing we did was use the light as you can see the face is being fit with brighter light to focus it on their face.
The relationship between art and portraits
My favorite of is the bottom two as i think its quite accurate with the paintings and the lighting however the top one was good but we messed up the lighting and it was way to dark because we tried to get a black background. We also should've taken the image from a bit higher up as you would be able to see less of my legs. Also my coat is ticking out and is not flowing down like the other one.
Refined
Ive improved it by not making it to dark we did this by changing the background which made it not to light and not to dark. We took a few and experimented with angles and positioning and this was the closest one because it was from higher up and not as dark but we still got the correct background.
Cyanotypes
Luigi Veronesi
Luigi Veronesi was one of the leading figures in Italian avant-garde photography using photograms. photograms made by arranging objects on photographic paper and then exposing this to light to create the image. You can see he likes to use curly things to fill up the whole page and It makes it look 3d. He also most of the time uses black and white to make it seem more authentic, also he never really uses big things more just lines he does this because it looks smooth and more appealing. This differs too Man Ray as he uses bigger objects and even body parts to create different effects.
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Unusual self portrait homework
My teacher gave me the task to make unusual self portraits and what i have done is distorted my face with other objects for example i used the plat and the light to get rid of almost half of my head. I also did a reflective image where you can see the outline of my head and shoulders.
Lighting workshop
-Main light is called the key light.
-When the lights above the shadows are underneath him.
-Soft-box
-With diffusion it makes the light softer.
-With out diffusion its harsh.
-with lighting you can manipulate it.
-No diffusion on LED lights.
-fillermentlight.
-With LED lights you can put a gel on it to change the colour of the light.
-LED varsaces.
-two point light system.
-move the light further away for shadows.
-When the lights above the shadows are underneath him.
-Soft-box
-With diffusion it makes the light softer.
-With out diffusion its harsh.
-with lighting you can manipulate it.
-No diffusion on LED lights.
-fillermentlight.
-With LED lights you can put a gel on it to change the colour of the light.
-LED varsaces.
-two point light system.
-move the light further away for shadows.
On the top ones we used the studio and took some self portraits where we experimented with the light for example on my friend Mohamed we put the lights at different positions and different intensities. Then we experimented with different colors of light for example on me we used green which didn't work to well with my skin tone. Finally we went outside and took some of me in the snow where my favorite one is the one with my hood up because you cant see my face and you can see the dragon breathe coming from my mouth.
Lee Friedlander
Lee began an interest in photography in at 14 and in his photographs he uses light to show off the face for example the one of his in his car you can clearly see the use of the light to shown his face. My first impression of Lees work is how he composes the people for example they are never really centered, most of the time they are off to the side. With Lee his photos have a lot going on for example even though its a self portrait theres always something else to look at.
Self Portraits
In these images we experimented in the studio with light and objects. For example the one on the left i used a mannequin to make it look like it was only my head and my body was the mannequin. The next images i used a pink light which complements my skin tone much better than the green. In that image i also used a reflective material which creates a shiny surface. In the final image we used motion and iff you look at my show its even blurred because i'm walking.
Rankin-Destroy
The Rankin Destroy project was a fund raising project and was done is early 2009 and it was done to celebrate the 10th birthday of youths music . He asked 70 musicians and visual artists to destroy their own portrait photographs originally taken by Rankin but he 'destroyed' the images making it different but really he modified them and by doing this he could do whatever he wanted to do with them. He does this as he said he was bored and hungry and the images he created are very interesting and the images can portray whatever you want to as your doing creative things to your portrait. When you do this it gives you the opportunity do what you want to the image which what makes it special.
The photograms came out very well i tried to target my face by using things to circle my face for example the frame and the circle ones. In the photogram i've also used light to make my torso light up and to also make my face shine.
I think that this is effective because the face is still in the middle but other parts of the body are spread around like one of my eyes which is near the bottom. I also think i used colors that complement each other well (blue and green).
In this cyanotype it came out well because you can see the difference of lighting because of the way the blues came out. Also the objects that i used i used to cover my face and made a sort of pattern with the string you can also see on my jumper that i'm in light and shadow and it cuts off some of my body because i'm in shadow.
My photopia photos came out good as i used the a tool which allowed me to alter the photo in different ways for example the purple one i made my body go in and my head out to disfigure the image and make it look less like me.
Vivian Maier self portraits
In the photos i can see Vivian taking self portraits by using reflections, she takes these in the city with buildings around her. Vivian takes a variety of self portraits were some are abstract for example the middle one where you can only see her torso and there are children and cars through her. Since she uses an older camera the pictures come out in black and white this camera is called a Kodak brownie box camera. Vivian doesn't use the light as much as other photographers however the left one uses light to shine on her face making it the focus of the image. A question i would ask her would be how she got the inspiration to do this work when at the time she didn't really gain anything from it.
- She uses a Rolleiflex camera.
- In her self portraits she uses reflections in the city.
- She was an American street photographer whose work was discovered and recognised after her death.
- Vivian Maier was a nanny.
- Maier’s negatives were purchased at auction near the end of her life.
This photo of Vivian Maier was made in a reflection and it is a self portrait. The camera position is at her waist level and the angle view is quite narrow. The orientation is portrait and it is made in monochrome because of the time the picture was taken and due to her camera. The photo interests me as her legs have people behind them and they are more in focus than her, i also think that Vivian did this to make to make two frames in one image which makes two self portraits.
30 photos
In these photos I have based them off of Vivian miar and I have experimented with capturing my self portraits in different reflective surfaces. Ive also gone to different environments for example lewisham. In the photos I have been on transport and shops to have different elements in them. Ive also made some of my portraits black and white this is to make it more like her work however some of them are in colour to represent my own interpretation by adding colour. The most successful ones I would say are the David bowie one where it looks like I am on the street I like this one because of the colours and because it looks as if I am there. I also like the ones where I use light and shadows to change my face.
Ziqianqian
These photos are very minimalist and she captures still images with herself being incorporate within it. In her photos she uses a plain background and uses only one object which is often a flower. In one of the photos she uses her arm to follow through from the flower, this makes it seem as if her arm is apart of the flower. The genre she uses usually are self portraits which don't show her face and typically involve a mirror or a reflection.
For this images she uses her arm as an extension of the flower she does this through her reflection on the mirror. She has a very plain background as she is using a lighter grey color and there is nothing else in the image other than the flowers. I like this because it makes you focus on the only thing in the picture which is her and the flower. It is a self portrait because it incorporates her but not her face and only her arm and dress. The genre she uses in this photo is a reflected self portrait where she does not show her face in it. |
in these images i have been inspired by Ziqianqian and how she use the refection and the object. I some of the self portraits i use a manikins as the object and i tried to make it look like my head was the manikins head. However i struggled in some of the images to make my phone not be in the image. my favourite one is the one outside with the brick wall this is because it is a simple background but contains a simple pattern and its still following the style of Ziqianqian because it has my face in the refection and it also doesn't contain my phone in the image.
Ziqianqian inspired self Portraits
In these pictures I have made them inspired by Ziqianqian and I have done this by having an object in the image with a mirror and a piece of my body. In her images she doesn't often show much of her body or her face at all and I tried to mimic this. One thing that I found difficult was keeping the phone out of the frame. In her images you never see the camera and in some of these I have managed to do so but in others my phone is visible. I also tried to incorporate a fruit in some of the images as she does the same with an orange but I tried it with an apple. She also uses a simple background which I tried to do use in mine but I also struggled with that as there was no fully plain backgrounds were I could place my mirrors. In these images i've used different objects for example necklaces and perfume bottles, my favorite is the necklaces because in some of them it looks like i'm wearing it through the reflection.
Experimenting with self portraits
In these self portraits we were experimenting with different things but we tried to do a plain background in each one and over all it went well. my favorite one is the first one, its my favorite because you cant see my face but you can see the outlines and some of the textures of my face. In the picture i organized them and directed things like lighting and position of the photographer.
Inspired self portraits
In these images i have done Ziqianqian inspired images for some of them for example the ones with the small mirror and only a small part of my hand. Ive also done some regular reflective self portraits with my favorite one being the one in the bigger mirror where i have shine the light at my face which makes my eyes pop out with the blue colour.
Plan
for my piece of art i want to use Ziqianqian inspired photos but but i do them in a photogram so hopefully this will create a black and white version but with little of my in it. I can also use other objects to distort and add to my image in each different ones that i do.
For my final piece i decided to do photograms and with these i used Ziqianqian inspired photos. My favorite on is the furthest to the right, this is because it disoriented the image with a smoke looking effect and you can still clearly see the self portrait in the mirror which is only the lower part of my face. However on the left two i didn't leave them in the developer for long enough which is why they went grey, but i do quite like the way it looks and i think it complements the image as you can still see details for example the apple and its patterns.
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Samuel Fosso
My first thing that stands out to me about Samuels work is the use of colour he has incorporated bright colors that stand out for example red, greens, and yellows. Another thing that i find interesting about he work is the use of patterns for example if you look around the picture there is always a pattern and they often clash but he makes it seem to work. The composition of this photo makes it so the person is at the centre of the photo, the purpose that Samuels pictures hold is him impersonating another person or idea and he says he tells a story with his photos. It is a self portrait.
Final piece
editing process
In this I edited these images on photoshop and I used opacity do show the looming picture in the background. I also chose a select of two images which I thought would fit well together as one of them doesn't have my face in it and the other one is only my face but done in an obscure way.
final piece
In this final piece I used an image that head my cut of because I didn't want to show two pieces of my head and instead I wanted a photo In the background. I think this creates an effect of abstract because of the opacity your left guessing a little bit