TECHNIQUE
All images © Tim Clinch
THE ART OF PORTRAITURE With a lifetime of people photography to draw on, Tim Clinch questions the portrait genre’s fundamentals and suggests a few addendums of his own to further clarify what it means to capture someone’s likeness.
efore we begin, it is important that we define what we mean by a portrait. The dictionary definition is: ‘a painting, drawing, photograph, or engraving of a person, especially one depicting only the face or head and shoulders’. I think we would all agree with that, but I would add a few caveats. For me, in order to be described as a portrait
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rather than reportage or street photography, there has to be some sort of relationship between the sitter and the photographer. To be considered a portrait, the subject of the picture must be aware that they are being photographed. This can be fleeting. The quick question, ‘Can I take your
picture please?’ can be enough to establish eye contact, but it is often essential. Can a candid picture shot in a food market without the subject’s knowledge be considered a portrait? For me, no. This is not to say that it is not a good picture, not at all, it’s simply not a portrait.
‘There has to be some sort of relationship between the sitter and the photographer.’
The next caveat is the clause: ‘…especially one depicting only the face or head and shoulders’. In a lifetime in photography I have been commissioned to shoot a lot of pictures of people, both famous and otherwise. Sometimes they have been close-ups of a face, or a head and shoulders, but often they have been of people involved with their work, or in their workplace, and usually shot full length.
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Above French chef Michel Gerard in his kitchen at his Michelin three-star restaurant in Eugénie-les-Bains. I posed him at the front and had the staff moving around and working behind him. Opposite Chef and owner of the iconic St John restaurant Fergus Henderson shot for the Independent.
Fergus is a quirky character and I love the negative space in this and the notice I left in the top corner.
