Favourite Portraiture Photos

It would seem that I have a particular taste towards black and white portrait photos as I'm drawn in with the ones shown below. I suppose being able to see a photo in black and white, especially when its of people is very fascinating to me because if anything, people aren't but just black and white, but yet it fits so well when it comes down to taking photos of the subjects.

I'm not very experienced in taking portrait photos in black and white but I imagine it to be a lot more technical than what people like to think it is. You get various tones of colour when you take photos in normal shooting mode, that is, normal shooting mode in today's standards. 

Many in between hues, possibly even between two contrasting colours, but with black and white photos, you just get a variety of grey. Its the subtle differences between the shades that makes the photo more interesting, and harder to achieve as you would be restricting yourself from all the colours on the pallet possible to the human eye.

Al Pacino (1995)

Irving Penn is known as a fashion and portrait photographer but is mostly known for his works on portrait photos of celebrities as well as his still life ones. I find his work to be very similar to Annie Leibovitz's work in terms of using mainly black and white when taking a portrait photo, however they seem to be less glamorous than Annie's. 

Maybe because I feel like his work focuses on the subjects' face and expression rather than having some background like Annie's, giving it a more humbling sense, when it comes down to it celebrities are people as well. I also find that the expressions on his subjects' faces appear to be more natural and relaxed, which links to a quote he once said

"Sensitive people faced with the prospect of a camera portrait put on a face they think is the one they would like to show to the world... Every so often what lies behind the façade is rare and more wonderful than the subject knows or dares to believe"

I think when he takes his photos, this façade is something he wants to eliminate from them.

What draws me in about this photo of Al Pacino that Irving did is that I believe it to be one of the rare and wonderful expressions that Irving tries to capture. You may or may not know, but Al's life wasn't particularly easy when growing up; considering his parent's divorced when he was 2, was drinking and smoking by 9, started using cannabis casually at 13, and dropping out of school at 17 which lead him to being homeless at times when working minimum paid jobs. Clearly he has not had an easy start to life.

I wouldn't describe his expression as sorrow though. I see it more as "quit complaining and get on with it" sort of look to put it in nice terms. I wouldn't imagine him to be someone who can tolerate being around people who whines about their life but doesn't do anything to make it better.

Twiggy (1967)

Above is a photo of supermodel Twiggy that was taken by Bert Stern in 1967. Bert is a self-taught American Fashion and celebrity portrait photographer who died in 2013. Stern's photos, much like Penn's, has this organic expression that his subjects portray, however in a different approach. I feel that his approach is to capture the innocence of a child within an adult especially within beautiful women.

In the photo above, Twiggy was 17 when that photo was taken. If you're not familiar with Twiggy and who she is as a person, you would guess that she is a very expressive  individual with a light hearted exterior, quirky even, just from looking at this photo. A quote by Richard Curtis from the 45 minute documentary on Twiggy by 'Biography' seems to back up my statement on Twiggy's charisma.

"I love the photos of her with Kate Moss, because I think they share that same quality of this rather astonishing, chilly, perfect beauty, and then when you talk to them, they're utterly natural, kooky girls"

What drew me to this particular photo that Bert Stern did of Twiggy is that it lacks this symmetry that most, if not all supermodels' faces, are based on. I'm not saying Twiggy's face isn't symmetrical, but rather the element of her asymmetric haircut and the underexposure of light on right eye, even though the soft box lighting is placed to the right of the photo. Another thing to take into account is how the shadows have a grainy texture compared to the white surface, which looks as smooth as porcelain.With the light coming from the right of the photo, the left side flaunts Twiggy's features with the shadows casting on it, much like the shadows sand dunes cast when the sun sets in the desert.

Kurt Cobain (1994)

This is a photo that Mark Seliger took 2 months before Kurt Cobain killed himself.

Mark Seliger is an American Photographer who is known for his celebrity portrait photos. He has photographed front covers for 'Detail', 'The RollingStones' and 'W' magazine and seems to favour taking them with a CU or a MS composition when taking them.

What I like about his photos is that they appear to be simple but intricate, his subjects, particularly his male ones, have a distant look in their eyes. Although most of the portraits that he has done are in black and white, some are done in colour. His use of blues and golds appear to be a favourite and shows a spectrum of temperature which adds more dynamic. I've noticed that he likes to set his male subjects in blue themes, giving them a rather cold and detached demeanour to them even when they are looking into the camera lens. When he uses gold on his female subjects, they create a warm glow within the frame, however they seem to lack narrative and intensity in terms of them seeming more like stoic in comparison.

Salvador Dali - Philippe Halsman