Feedback Reflection

Interesting thoughts came about from a tutorial feedback session today where looking at the overall series of photographs I have produced, the photographs vary in style and connotation with the smiling, holding the camera to the face produces images that are more representative of a still life image and ‘cheesy’ advertisements rather than the portrait of the photographer. The portrait itself does not need to be explicit in showing who the photographer is with the camera but one where the facade is removed and cut and the bare skin and person is shown through the photograph to truly portray the portrait of the intended photographer who is rarely seen in front of the camera.

Some of the photographs are great photographs of composition and print quality however do not produce the same effect of the portrait when removing such distractions and bearing the photographer under the skin.

One with a Camera I
Own Photograph

A possibility to take these portraits further is by looking at photographing from a distance as a full or half body standing photograph with the camera to become a smaller object within the photograph as a feature to relate to the subject of photography, symbolising their work as a photographer if they are standing naturally, off guard with the camera hanging loosely to the side of their body. Another idea is to simply remove the prop of the camera to portray the photographer as themselves as the overall subject rather than the subject with a camera which could be seen as overly literal and distract from the purpose of looking at who the photographer is.

Take a Picture VII
Own Photograph

It has become clear that the work needs to focus upon clarifying the underneath of the photographer with or without the character without it becoming cheesy or unrealistic which is something much more difficult to produce when using a semi static camera that is completely obvious when changing focus and position when aiming for something that is more emotive and truthful to the photographer, getting a sense of the reality from both sides of the camera as photographers have a tendency not to appear in front of the camera for a variety of reasons.

Abe Frajndlich

Upon a search for photographers looking at the idea of photographing other photographers, I came across the work of Abe Frajndlich, born 1946, a United States of America resident after moving via Isreal, Brazil and France at the age of 10 from Frankfurt, Germany.

Frajndlich has created a series of work spanning over 20 years with over 100 different portraits of fellow photographers including the likes of Duane Michals and Annie Liebovitz in a series titled ‘Penelope’s Hungry Eyes’ as a reference to the wife of Odysseus who had a strong belief and patience for the return of her husband. The body of work seeks to uncover those who’s eyes are hidden by a camera, where Frajndlich has sought to discover and document his fellow photographers to discover and express what makes each photographer tick. Each photograph is personal to those within the photograph with setting, props and scenario changing in relation to how each photographer feels about being photographed or how they want to be perceived by other photographers and the public. Colour or black and white is a selective choice between the availability and the choice of the photographer being photographed as to portray a particular emotion/ idea across to the observer. The photographs presented are often subtly humorous, portraying a notion of creativity amongst photographers while the work responds to the similarities and differences, and also reputation of the person and the photographer (Frajndlich, A,  2013). The body of work has undergone several incarnations with publications at different times of the process with the series taking a form of Masters of Light, in 1991.

Cindy Sherman, 1987
Abe Frajndlich
http://www.abefoto.com.html

From the work of Frajndlich, a common theme is the choice of focus upon the eye of the photographer, the most valuable aspect of the photographer. Looking and seeing photographs is a key skill in distinguishing between photographs as we are inundated with photographs daily.

Frajndlich, A, 2013, Bio, [online] [accessed on 20/04/2015] Available from http://www.abefoto.com/bio.html

Frajndlich, A, 1991, ‘Photo ops with the masters’, Artnews,[online] vol 90, pgs 125-129 [Accessed 25/04/2015] Available from Art Source

Frajndlich, A. 2012, Photographing photographers, New York Times [online] 15 Jan. 2012 pg 7 [Accessed 25/04/2015] Available from Academic OneFile

Tregoning, B, 2015 PENELOPE’S HUNGRY EYES. [online] [Accessed 28/04/2015] Available at: http://www.tregoningandco.com/penelopes-hungry-eyes.html

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

David Bailey – Celebrity Portraits

Kate Moss, 2013
David Bailey
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/david-baileys-stardust-national-portrait-gallery-review-celebrity-portraits-over-50-years-1436748

David Bailey has become one of the iconic fashion photographers of history, becoming notorious for his work in the swinging sixties, working for Vogue for 15 years using particular models for a long period of time, building a relationship between model and photographer that is also beneficial for he interaction in the photograph. He developed his work to integrate the pop culture into fashion photography, taking new steps as a Cockney heterosexual male in a homosexual world. Bailey started to capture the female model as a the female with legs and breasts, empowering a sense of lust and desire to the figure over the body of working as a high-glamour clothes rack. It could be seen that he also see’s the word differently from his upbringing as a dyslexic who was frowned upon, working as a debt collector, carpet salesman and window dresser.

His work as a portrait photographer is the work that is most intriguing. The square, black and white photographs of celebrities and other well-known people (such as the Kray twins) are works capturing more than just a facet of a personality, the mask is still there but the is a sense of character evoked from each photograph. The series of works began in the 1960’s but continues to this day, building a larger and larger collection of portraits. There is a classic whiteout background in all these portraits with the prominence of photographs focused above the waist. There is interesting crops in the photographs to emphasise different regions and character of the sitter. In contrast to other portrait photographers, Bailey uses a high contrast in the lighting, creating darker shadows on the face of the sitter which is not used often by portrait photographers. The high contrast is bold and yet beautiful, allowing for the possibility that not all of the personality of the sitter is seen. These portraits of celebrities are comical and serious with emphasis upon the person under the skin, taking photographs of immense detail and personality that is wished to be portrayed. Not every photograph is the same but there is a certain atmosphere within the photographs that are familiar in all of Bailey’s work but the particular notion is impossible to pinpoint.

Work has been exhibited globally with many book publications documenting his work while having been published in a variety of magazine publications such as Vogue.

Mick Jagger
David Bailey
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/david-baileys-stardust-national-portrait-gallery-review-celebrity-portraits-over-50-years-1436748

 

 

Bailey, D, 2000, David Bailey: If We Shadows, London, Thames & Hudson

Bailey, D, 2007, David Bailey: Spezial Fotografie, Kempen, teNeues

National Portrait Gallery, 2015, David Bailey [online] [Accessed 23/02/2015] http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp05044/david-bailey

Damtsa, V, (2014). David Bailey’s Stardust at National Portrait Gallery Review: Celebrity Portraits Over 50 Years. [online]  [Accessed 22/02/2015] Available at: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/david-baileys-stardust-national-portrait-gallery-review-celebrity-portraits-over-50-years-1436748

Sooke, A, 2014, Sprinkle stardust on me: EXHIBITION A huge retrospective shows off David Bailey’s gift for turning the celebrity photograph into art, The Daily Telegraph [Online] 5 February 2014 [Accessed 23/02/2015] ProQuest European Newsstand