Visual culture year 2 journal 7

Portrait and photography

Creating a portrait is in a sense capturing the essence of a person in a photograph. A portrait can mean many different things depending on the context in which it is used in, for example in documentary photography portraits can mean there was a chance encounter with a stranger resulting in a portrait, self portraits can mean capturing yourself in a moment for personal uses or a portrait for a client could be for friends or family or again personal uses. 

To make a portrait is to make a statement, show the person as they are in that moment. Be it candid or semi-candid. 

Portraiture can be used to send all kinds of messages, it can be a way to show of wealth, capture the innocence of a child, progression o culture and generations etc.

Steve McCurry

The images above are by Steve McCurry a famous portrait photographers. His work depicts various people from all cultural backgrounds. By creating a portrait of a person you are in return capturing their culture also by the clothes they are wearing and the characteristics of the person. I believe the intention of these images is just that to capture different people from around the world. These images are aesthetically pleasing due to the full, vibrant colours captured.

Jimmy Nelson

The images above are by Jimmy Nelson. Similar to Steve McCurry he also captures the culture background of the subjects in his portraits. Again they are aesthetically pleasing also due to the sharpness and bright color used.

Images as a group set

Both of the photo series' i have shown above would be perfect shown as a group. One image on its own would not show much of a message.

If you put all of them together in a gallery or exhibition, it brings together a whole new outlook and message for the viewers. Although it is up to the viewer when dealing with how they interpret the message behind it.

Portraits as historical documents

Since the beginning of the visual culture portraits have been used to document people, firstly through paintings of people who held great importance such as world leaders like henry the 8th etc, and even just wealthy people. An example of this is the famous paint 'the mona lisa'. 

An example of a wealthy couple who had their portrait painted is 'mr and mrs andrews by Gainsborough shown below.

With the age of photography has made it easier to take a portrait. Especially in today's day and age. It means we have a physical documentation of life in different time periods not to mention the progression of how portraits both painted and photographic were composed.