Portraiture

Diane Arbus (Matthael Family)

• She was in New York in the early 60's.
• The models face will show the emotion Arbus wants us to feel.
• She was curious, never threatening. She always used to whisper to people so they would lean in.
•  "It was all about her" in her photographs. It was "the work of someone who wanted to be someone else", she wanted to be the person she captured.
• She was a risky choice to be the Matthael's photographer as they were rich and wanted good photos and they chose Arbus who many people didn't know. They said her work was "unique"
• The photos she took were not always flattering but they were very interesting, the family had lots of photos but none like the ones Arbus captured.
• In 1971 she took her own life, friends said maybe "she didn't find what she was looking for" 

Richard Evans

• He was a celebrity photographer, very well known for his work.
• He died in 2005.
• In the 30's and 40's, photographers were known for "Making the famous look divine".
• Every celebrity wore a mask in Evans mind, he tried to take away the mask that they show to the public and capture the real them.
• Its all about the person's personality not about the image the model wishes to show the public.
• "people are not who they appear to be" One family photo cant show you how close the family are, what the families personality is like and who gets along or not.

Tony Vaccaro

• He didn't take any pictures that were pre-posed, he took them in the moment they relax and show their real personality.
• Emotion is important.

 Larry Clark

• He was an insider photographer not an outsider like the people above.
• He took mainly nude pictures.
• He took pictures that were apart of his life, his pictures were like a diary.
• 1971 he published a book called "Tosser" with all his pictures in.
• He captured real scenes from his life, like drugs, nude scenes, very private pictures.

 Portraiture: Portraying a person. You may never get the full understanding of the person but its real, its a captured moment that has actually happened and cant be made up.


Photojournalism: Their is a story, you are being told about the picture so a specific image is already put into your head when you look at the picture.


 Who is in control the model or the photographer? The photographer captures the shot he wants however the model makes the emotion and personality given in the photo.

Application

History:

     The Rich and powerful used to be the only people to have their portrait taken. None else could afford it. Diana Arbus is a good example of this as she took portraits of the Matthael Family who were very well know. Arbus took the photos at the family party which is a very common thing to do as the rich always had posh house parties with photographers.
     Portraiture Photographers often used to want to take pictures of the personalities of the people not posed pictures that the rich wanted others to see them as. A know Photographer who shares this technique is Tony Vaccaro. Vaccaro liked to wait for the person to show a part o them that they hadn't pre-posed, for example, if you were rich or "high class" everyone saw you as you wanted to be shown. Men used to have a certain power and women always looked their best however that wasn't them as a person, that was how they wanted the public to see them. Vaccaro wanted to show emotion and personality in the pictures he took however it meant getting rid of the models pre-posed position.
     I think catching people in the moment is very important, especially to photographers, because you are capturing a moment. The photographer only captures an image he is happy with and Vaccaro was very precise with his photo's.

Tony Vaccaro - The kiss of liberation

 Tony Vaccaro

     Tony Vaccaro, American photographer, best known for his photos in Europe in 1944/5 and in Germany after WWII.
    Vaccaro was a war photographer and he was a great soldier but an ever better photographer. Vaccaro had determination and courage, he got as close as he could to get the best pictures he could however being a soldier too he didn't have time to take a perfect picture however he captured a soldiers life.
    The army had ownership of his photos so unfortunately they took them from Vaccaro as it would contradict the positive messages back home. This didn't stop Vaccaro, he went out and took as many pictures as he could. Photography was his passion so, to Vaccaro, it was life and death because he had to capture true "in the moment" images.
 
 The picture below shows a soldier returning home to Frankfurt to find his house bombed and his family gone. I think this is a great photo because it shows the true emotion of the returning soldier.

German soldier returns home - Tony Vaccaro

"Together, these two images showcase Vaccaro’s talent for capturing a moment, joyous or devastating. His enormous collection of war-time images, however, was just the beginning of his career."
 http://www.military-history.org/articles/war-photographers/tony-vaccaro-war-photographer.htm  


These two photographs are some of Vaccaro's finest work according to the webpage above. The tow photos show two very different emotions, the top image shows hope whereas the image to the left show devastation. devastation is hard to show in an image especially in a soldier that has been in war however Vaccaro has captured the soldiers true emotion.The two photo's shows us that Vaccaro capture people in the moment whether its a joyful or heart-breaking moment.