PORTRAITURE

ORTRAITSP

& Interviews

“A photographic portrait is a picture of someone who knows he’s being photographed, and what he does with this knowledge is as much a part of the photograph as what he’s wearing or how he looks. He’s implicated in what’s happening, and he has a certain real power over the result. We all perform. It’s what we do for each other all the time, deliberately or unintentionally. It’s a way of telling about ourselves in the hope of being recognized as what we’d like to be. I trust performances. Stripping them away doesn’t necessarily get you closer to anything. The way someone who’s being photographed presents himself to the camera, and the effect of the photographer’s response on that presence, is what the making of a portrait is about.” (Evans 1995:37)

Aïda Knipp

A portrait is a photograph, painting or other form of art which represents the personality and mood of a live being. It could be a human; it might be an animal - there are even photographers who specialize in portraits of cats. Whatever the focus of the portrait, the most important aspect of portraiture is engagement with the subject. This is necessary in order to get the expression and to be able to capture the essence of a person. Very important aspect of portrait is emotion, feeling and personality. As I have mentioned earlier it is very easy to get in to the photography today, because of mass media and easier access to photography in general. Many photographers have lost the connection with their subject due to this crazy race for technological superiority or advance - the true quality and reality of the subject, misguided by fake values. Photographs become empty and people have lost their real identity. This digital generation of photographers hides the reality confusing most vulnerable individuals. Many of this generation photographers do not really care about the object in the photograph as much as they care about what camera is used, how expensive it is and how many megapixels it has. They become involved in the race for technological quality which has no first, second or third place. This race has no winner simply because there is no real feeling in it, it cannot create the emotion nor feeling no matter how many megapixels it has or how expensive it is. In this case it falls under Gestalt law meaning “Knowledge of language, by itself, does not make one a great writer or poet.” (Zakia 2007:57) Where language is your equipment and by using more expensive equipment more beautifully your language sounds. What it means is Photography is a language and every language has its culture which has to be respected. What I see today is “slang” photography, what I mean by that is that it is done just to be done because it is easy, photograph is taken for the sake of taking it and it is not delivering any information or feeling. Photography is more than taking a photograph it is a life time long self-educational process same as a new born child learns his first new words. But words are only sounds if they deliver no meaning, same is applied to photography. Photograph with no meaning is as meaningless as combination of random letters spoken in wrong places. Just a color and a shape captured in time. I believe that being a great photographer is the same as being a great songwriter. It is not enough just to know the notes it is the ability to compose them in to music what makes it a masterpiece. It is essential for music to deliver feelings, same as it is necessary for words to have a meaning. It cannot be created after, it has to come within you speaking, within you composing, within you photographing.