Portraiture

'Stealing and exploiting other peoples faces and lives' - Diane Arbus on portraiture.

Arbus was always curious about other peoples lives and would be in awe of people and their individuality. She was also very quiet and would whisper alot to draw people in close to her, it helped her connect with people and made the people she was photographing feel more comfortable.

She also wouldn't tell the people she is photographing what to do. She wouldn't say 'pull a sad face' or 'pull this face' etc. She'd just capture a persons current emotions.

Richard Avedon was an American photographer who was famous for his fashion and portraiture work. After his death in 2004, his obituary in the New York Times stated how Avedon's 'fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century'. Very much a photography legend, Avedon is well known for his portraiture work on Marilyn Monroe.

In 1994, Avedon started working as an advertisement photographer for a department store and it wasn't too long until Harper's Bazaar noticed him. In 1945, he began to appear in Junior Bazaar and just a year later, in Bazaar itself.

Just two years after starting his photography career, in 1946 Avedon had his own studio and was providing images for magazines such as Vogue. He became the lead photographer for Vogue in 1973 and would produce the cover photos. Other achievements in Avedon's career include photographing The Beatles and the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 2003 he was awarded the Royal Photographic Society's Special 150th Anniversary Medal for his contribution to the art of photography.

Tony Vaccaro - 'Photography is about placing someone on a pedestal. Realising their qualities.'

Tony Vaccaro is most known for his work as an army photographer in WWII as I said in my photojournalism post. However he has done some portraiture work and once took a portrait of Picasso.

Picasso once had Robert Capa attempt to take a portrait of him but the artist didn't like Capa's work. He was a quiet man who wasn't interested in photographs and portraits being taken of him, however Vaccaro was given his chance and certainly made the most of it.

Picasso was pulling a load of poses when Vaccaro went to photograph him so Vaccaro tricked him by saying his Leica was broken, this prompted Picasso to drop his pose and drop his 'mask'. At that moment, Vaccaro snapped Picasso and gave himself a a good portrait.

Larry Clark was just an American kid who enjoyed hanging around with his friends. He would often have a camera around his neck in doing so and would take pictures of he and his friends antics including drug use, alcohol consumption and under-age sex. He then published his work in a book that he titled 'Tulsa'. Named after where he grew up in Oklahoma.

Critics described Clark's early work as 'exposing the reality of American suburban life at the fringe'.

The American photographer Nan Goldin said 'the only thing you really can photograph is your own tribe.'

'I want to take photographs literate, authorative and transcendant' - Walker Evans, an American photographer who would take pictures of people without them noticing.

Evans was famed for his work during the Great Depression.

In 1941, Evans and James Agee, a writer, were sent to Southern Alabama to experience rural poverty during the depression. They lived with three different farmer families and together painted a portrait of exactly what it was like to be in rural poverty.

Evans' photographs of the families made them depression-era icons and to this day, the pictures are still looked upon when the Great Depression is being discussed.

The picture above is of one of the families that Evans photographed. The picture sends a strong message and it's quite shocking to see that the man of the house, the Dad, is at home and not working. Not working because of the high rate of unemployment that had hit everyone. Their clothes look bare and they all look miserable but also quite united and close as a family.

Summary

Each photographer has their own style however they do all relate to each other in some way. Walker Evans would get his best results from taking pictures of families as they all prepared to have their photograph taken. It's the same with when Vaccaro got his snap of Picasso. It suggests that for a photographer to get their best portrait shot, they need to take a photo when the person is least expecting it. Diane Arbus knew this in some way and wouldn't prepare someone for their photo to be taken.

Despite this, Richard Avedeon got his best shots when he prepared his subject, like with Marilyn Monroe for example, where he prepared her for her portrait shots. Somewhere in the middle of these views is Larry Clark, who just documented his lifestyle. His friends weren't expecting the shots but then again they aslo weren't not expecting them.

Fashion Photography

Fashion photography is a genre of photography where clothing is advertised on models. It is most frequently done for fashion magazines such as Vogue and Vanity Fair. Famous fashion models include Victoria Beckham and Naomi Campbell. Famous fashion photographers include David Bailey and Sir Cecil Beaton.

When is an image a portrait and when is it a fashion photograph?

Portraits and fashion photographs are actually very similar but also very different. With both, the photographer may position you and also tell you where to look etc. however, there is one main objective of a portrait, depicting the person into a photograph. Expressing their feelings from a still. You need to be able to look at the portrait and attempt to decipher what kind of person they are, how they feel. A group portrait, e.g. one of  a family can have a story to it. You can see from the photo who is in charge of the family, who is a naughty child etc.

With a fashion photograph, the main objective is to show the clothing in the best way possible. The model has to work the items they are modelling. The photographer isn't especially looking for a story from the model although they will be asked to act out a certain feeling. E.g. if a child is modelling clothing then they will be expected to be happy whereas if someone is modelling army gear then you will expect a disciplined expression from the model.

Portraits are very much about the person. It's about placing who they are into a photograph or painting.
Fashion photographs are all about what the model is wearing in the photograph. About clothes, colours, culture.

Is there a clash between the creative and commercial side of fashion photography?

Sometimes, when a photographer is given an assignment to do a fashion photo-shoot for a magazine or a brand, they may be asked to be creative with their work. Instead of placing someone on a beach and taking photographs of them with the sea in the background, they may put them on a specifically designed set. A set with props and features such as animals, furniture or bright and wacky colours.

However, there is a fine line between being creative and being too creative with your work.

The picture below was taken for Vogue magazine. However the image was rejected by the top fashion magazine as it was too creative. In a fashion photograph, the only thing that is important is the items being modelled. However, in this photograph, the attention is taken away from the models and what they are wearing and instead, the person viewing the picture will be looking at the props such as the dogs and not as much at the models.

The chances of selling an item from promoting it through photography will increase if the photographer can create an effect where when someone sees the image, the item jumps out at the person viewing the image. However with this photo, the creativeness of the set is the only thing that jumps out to the viewer.

Photojournalism

Photojournalism is a mixture of Photograhy and Journalism, it is much cheaper for a Newspaper or Magazine to hire a photojournalist than it is to higher a journalist or photographer.

Why hire two people to do two seperate things when you can hire one to do both?

A photojournalist will go out and take pictures of a certain event, such as a football match. They will then select one or two of the photos they've taken and then insert them in to their story which will be written around the photos.

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photojournalist who is quite offen reffered to as the godfather of Photojournalism. Born on the 22nd August 1908, Cartier-Bresson was at first just a painter and it wasn't until 1937 that his photojournalism career started when he covered the coronation of King George VI, for the French magazine Regards.  

In September 1939, Cartier-Bresson joined the French Army as a Corporal in the Film and Photo unit after World War II broke out.  He is one of the co-founders of Magnum Photos. One of his most famous photographs is his snap of a man jumping over a puddle (right), which he took in 1932 outside a station in Paris. It is now rated as one of the greatest photos of the 20th Century. Cartier-Bresson had a certain style of work. He would wait in a certain place and he would wait and wait and wait until someone or something came along for him to snap with his Leica. He is famous for coining the term 'the decisive moment', he believed that the key to capturing a good photo was down to waiting for the decisive moment to take the snap. This is still a way of business for many present day photographers.

Robert Capa was also one of the co-founders of Magnum Photos and was a war photographer. Capa covered 5 different wars including the Spanish Civil War and World War II. He travelled to New York at the start of WWII to escape the Nazi's, however the experienced combat photographer was sent to Europe to travel with American soldiers for photography assignments. He worked for various companies and snapped many frontline photos for them including 'the falling man' (left).

Tony Vaccaro was also a soldier photographer and took photographs throughout the Second World War. He took photos across Europe in 1944 and 1945 and then in Germany straight after the war had finished to document post-war life.

Vaccaro was raised in Italy, after being born in the USA. He moved back to America when WWII broke out. At the age of 17, Vaccaro finished his education and was drafted into the U.S. Army. He was sent off to Europe as a scout and would take photographs in his spare time. When Vaccaro finally came home after the war, he became a fashion and lifestlye photographer for American magazines.

Eddie Adams was an American photographer and photojournalist mostly known for his coverage of 13 different wars. He was a combat photographer during the Korean War for the United States Marine Corps.

Adams is best known for a photograph he took in 1968 during the Vietnam war. He captured the moment General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan, South Vietnam's Police Chief, executed Nguyễn Văn Lém on a busy street in Saigon (right). The photograph became one of the most famous pictures to be taken during the war and Adams won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and the World Press Photo award for his piece.

The execution was also caught on camera by and NBC news crew, however many people agree that Adams photograph is much more powerful than the clip. The photo is shown much more than the video is to illustrate the killing.

 

The video is very quick, the action all happens before you realise what is actually going on. However, if you take one look at the photograph then you see a busy street, you can see a soldier, you can see the bullet entering Nguyễn Văn Lém's head. Everything is much clearer in the photo and it gives you a better understanding of the situation.

 

I believe, especially in this case, that photojournalism is more powerful than a video. A video shows you what happened whereas a photograph gives you a message, a powerful message which is supported by what is written about the photo.