Portraiture

Application

Portraiture was originally a beautiful painting of someone who is rich or who is very powerful who hired a very skilled painter to capture their power within the painting, which meant that the one who was posing owned that portrait. Yet as portraiture has evolved the possession has over turned, the man or woman who stands behind the camers own that portrait, they decide what they want to portray through the picture. 

Diane Arbus was a very unique photographer, she didnt like who she was, she wasn't happy with the life that she lived. She used photography to "try on" other peoples personalities, to act like someone else so she could escape from her mind. In her photography she brought out the inner personality of ordinary people, she captured the true emotion that they felt but no one else saw.

This picture of Marcella Matthaei was taken in 1969, she was just approaching adolescence, starting to feel angry, sad confused with all the emotions she was feeling. With this picture Diane Arbus captured all those emotions before Marcella knew it herself.

Diane liked to capture the unknown, she photographed dwarfs, giants, transvestites, nudists and circus performers. Arbus was known as the photographer of freaks. She photographed what was known as the other world, the world that people are "afraid" to explore.

  

 Larry Clark is a story teller with his work, he boldly portrayed his own lifestyle through his pictures. He let the world know what he done within his social group, such as drugs, sex and guns.

 





Context

Portraiture is all around us in our everyday lives, although we don't always notice it. Many companies use portraiture to advertise products, they usually use portraites of celebrities to make the product more popular. They usually advertise with portraits on billboards, leaflets, magazines and newspapers. One of the biggest places you will find portraits is on the internet, as many companies and celebrities have their own sites, which people of the public can check out. Portrait is alot more popular than landscapes in magazines and newspapers because they take up less space in them.

Techniques

The Leica camera was invented in Germany 1925, it was compact and quiet which meant it was easy to carry around and take picture in the right place at the right time.


Texture is a big part of photography, it makes the picture almost "pop" out of the page. Although you have to make sure you match the background texture to the foreground of the picture, otherwise it will not look "right". 
Years ago portraiture was mainly used for Kings and Queens of the era, to show how rich they are, and shows the texture of their clothes and jewellry. The person that was in the painting got to choose what they wanted to wear and how they wanted to portray themselves.