Portrait of Photographers and Their Subjects - Portrait Photography

As the title of this blog suggests, the following will be an exploration of various different styles of portraiture in photography.  As it will follow a similar structure to the Landscape assignment, I will go ahead and dive in to the endeavor.

Sebastiao Salgado

Salgado's portraits have such incredible atmosphere that it is hard to look away from some of his works.  Above is one of his powerful images, where he has made wonderful use of the lighting conditions and fog that were around his subjects.  I find this technique admirable because I appreciate the emotional content of the story he is telling.  This is something I have begun to strive for in my own portraits.

Gregory Crewdson

It is not surprising that I have picked the following portrait for this blog, as it is also similar to some of my more recent work in portraiture.  I love the strangeness of Crewdson's setting, and the use of vibrant colors within such a dark space really appeals to me.  Yet it is difficult to understand precisely what Crewdson meant by bringing these flowers into a house, although it does seem clear that the woman is tired or weary.  She seem forlorn, even.  This seems like a photograph that I will have to dwell on for a while before I can truly understand it.  Regardless of this fact, t is still an incredibly compelling portrait.

-Kelly F.