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.