Cecil Beaton

In a series of works, Cecil Beaton has photographed many artists from fine art to photography and carries the honour of having held the first retrospective exhibition of a major photographer at the National Portrait Gallery, London in 1968 (NPG, 2015)
One of his photographs of photographer features Patrick Lichfield holding a Hasselblad, ready for use but looking directly into the camera held by Cecil Beaton (Beaton, C, 2014, pg 274, 275). This photographic portrait is amusing capturing a photographer mid photograph with bemusement and annoyance to being photographed at the moment in time.

Patrick Lichfield
Cecil Beaton
http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw65683/Patrick-Lichfield?LinkID=mp60444&search=sas&sText=patrick+lichfield&role=sit&rNo=2

Although photographing many artists, Beaton has not included props that are relevant to the artist, this choice is selective towards how Beaton wishes to portray the sitter. His portrait of David Bailey, the iconic editorial and fashion photographer,  does not use any props to symbolise who he is but to shows who Bailey is as a person, rather than a guy with a camera. (Beaton, C, 2014, pg 260, 261) This photograph is fully focused and cropped to remove any outward distractions but the pose at which Bailey is in is one selected by the sitter as reference to himself and how he wishes to be portrayed within such portrait which is open and easy to look at while the eyes create a focus point to show his personality through his eyes that express a slight humour and content with being photographed that contradicts the loose fist held against his head suggesting the impatience of his personality. The focus on these aspects by Beaton is one to be admired as he is able to convey the feelings, granted the connotation of feelings within the portrait in a crop of the frame to focus upon the features that are most relevant to revealing the identity that remains natural amongst the knowledge of the photograph.

David Bailey
Cecil Beaton
http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw67099/David-Bailey?search=sp&OConly=true&sText=david+bailey&rNo=14

His work has the ability to perfectly manage soft tones and the magic of light and shadow to produce technically perfect and beautiful portraits (Beaton, C, 2005 pg 5). The subtle, soft lighting softens the mood and encourages the traces of identity to be more prominent.

 

Beaton, C, 2005, Cecil Beaton: Fotografie, Kempen, te Neus

Beaton, C, Vickers, H, 2014, Cecil Beaton: Portraits and Profiles, London, Frances Lincoln

Garner, P, Mellor, D, 2012, The Essential Cecil Beaton, Munich, Schirmer/Mosel

Aletti, V, 2012, Cecil Beaton:The New York Years, Aperture, vol 207 Summer 2012, pg 11, 12

NPG, 2015, Cecil Beaton, [online] [Accessed 19/02/2015] Available from http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp05064/cecil-beaton?search=sas&sText=cecil+beaton

Process to suit you!

Daily Routines of Famous People
https://podio.com/site/creative-routines

The process of an artist. It is important to have a process of work for optimum creativity through space, and activity. Finding out the best method is key to unlocking those creative juices. Different processes work for different people – some work on little sleep, some work on lots of sleep while others need stimili from exercise or other leisure activities/hobbies. Another point to make in finding the perfect practice is how you like to work, in a controlled calm environment – taking several hours to know the environment making sure equipment is in perfect working order so can be more relaxed during a photoshoot like Portrait photographer Nadav Kander; or if you prefer to be on the move, creating a journey, taking in the unexpected and going with the flow a bit more like Alec Soth.
Feeling comfortable to an extend and being immersed in the work you are producing is key to producing great work. Its time to manipulate briefs to suit you in a degree and do it for yourself while holding on just enough to the brief. Some briefs will be more strict but when brief, personal interpretation can be let loose.

Timeline of Portrait Artists

Wall of artist timeline (incomplete) Variety of Artists/Photographers from 1860’s to current day

A great start to the session and creating a timeline of different photographers/artists working in the genre of portraiture in a variety of different form – from self portraits, documentation and war correspondence to sculpture and painting. It is remarkable to think that the amount of artists already covered is so great yet only just touches the surface. Marking the photographers in a time sequence allows relationships to be made with the social and political status and current affairs that influence each era of work while showing the differences and similarities of the work by different artists that also convey some conceptuality in their work.

A relationship was formed between the developments of technology and experiments while easily noted that the particulars of war correspondence photography as known in history has come to a dramatic change, almost stopping at Don McCullin, who is one of the most famous war photographers (not that this is a term he feels comfortable with) , where the reputation of correspondence photographers died out from the large masses of photojournalists. I bring this particular genre to attention since I find it so fascinating that someone would put themselves in such a position of danger while also forming photographs that are right place right time for the most prominent photography to be formed.

The idea of what is portrait photography was also debated for a moment, a debate which is almost definite to never end in the art community with the idea of identity being the prime focus, or the hidden identity or just a regular snapshot that may feature someone to the extreme of the representation of someone in something more tangible than the intangible idea of identity, spirit and soul.