portraiture.
Myra Greene
Myra Greene is an American photographer born in 1975. Her thought provoking work often explores matters such as race/ racial issues and identity.
Her project 'Character Recognition,' is a portraiture project consisting particularly close ups of both herself and others using traditional photographical methods. The project was spurred by the question 'How do we look at black people and recognise their character?' The zoomed focus on individual features of the subjects show what she refers to as 'features of race'- the features of which historically and currently black people are characterised and demonised for by white people.
To capture and print her images, Greene uses a method which was popular back in the 1840s-1890s called the wet plate collodion technique. It involves a huge number of manual steps: cutting the glass or metal plate; wiping egg-white along its edges; coating it evenly with a syrupy substance called collodion; making it light-sensitive by dunking it in silver nitrate for a few minutes; loading the wet plate carefully into a “dark slide” which is inserted into the camera; taking the picture; then developing it, which is rather like processing a black-and-white print. This process at the time was utilised for ethnographic photography, which often was aimed at creating a typological record of racial physiognomy.
Her project 'Character Recognition,' is a portraiture project consisting particularly close ups of both herself and others using traditional photographical methods. The project was spurred by the question 'How do we look at black people and recognise their character?' The zoomed focus on individual features of the subjects show what she refers to as 'features of race'- the features of which historically and currently black people are characterised and demonised for by white people.
To capture and print her images, Greene uses a method which was popular back in the 1840s-1890s called the wet plate collodion technique. It involves a huge number of manual steps: cutting the glass or metal plate; wiping egg-white along its edges; coating it evenly with a syrupy substance called collodion; making it light-sensitive by dunking it in silver nitrate for a few minutes; loading the wet plate carefully into a “dark slide” which is inserted into the camera; taking the picture; then developing it, which is rather like processing a black-and-white print. This process at the time was utilised for ethnographic photography, which often was aimed at creating a typological record of racial physiognomy.
Unedited pictures
I took these photos of Elthea, taking both a mixture of whole shots of her face then some more focused, zoomed shots of individual features.
After photoshop manipulation
To turn the images back and white, I used the grayscale effect on photoshop, then played around with the colour balance to get the right tone of the images that I wanted. Like Myra Greene, I wanted a stark contrast between the shades of black and white, so facial features were more emphasised.
Darkroom pictures
test strip:
First, I created a test strip to test out how the amount of time the print was exposed to the light would affect the developed image. I split one of my favourite images into 7 sections, exposing the first section to the light for half a second, the second section of the light for one second, and so on until I got a range of shades on my print. My favourite, and the one that resembled Greene's work the most was the 5th section that had been exposed to the light for 2 1/2 seconds, so for my next prints I sent the timer to this amount of time.
finalised:
Valerie Kabis
Valerie Kabis is a photographer based in Moscow who takes interest in the way light and shadow can manipulate facial features. She uses different shutter speeds and apertures to create highly contrasted images, that capture the shapes of her models face. Kabis also experiments with the incorporation of blur, movement, angles and focus which allow her to create dark and ominous images.
Unedited photos
After photoshop manipulation
To edit these pictures to be in the style of Valerie Kabis, I made them black and white by using the greyscale feature on photoshop. After removing the colour I increased the brightness, the contrast and finally added motion blur to achieve the same soft outlines of her subjects.
Other types of Light
After having a heat focus on lighting in the response to Kabis, we experimented with different types of lighting, both natural and artificial, for portraiture photos.
Window light
Natural light
Red light
The red light is what is seen in the darkroom. The image is blurred as a result of the long exposure, and as the subject moves
Main light Fill light Hair light
Tungsten light
Tungsten light gives a warm yellow/ orange glow. It is seen most commonly in ovens and inside filament bulbs.
Coloured lighting
Documentary Portrait
Georgetown, by Lewis Khan
Georgetown from lewis khan on Vimeo.
Lewis Khan b.1990 is a photographic artist from London, working with stills and moving image. His portrait based work is a study of emotion, relationships, and identity.
My response- Nana
Big Up Portrait, Ben Watts
Ben Watts is a London born photographer who created the book 'Big Up' - published in 2003. It features portraits of rappers, actors, dancers, boxers, children and other 'street life characters'. Watts was fascinated by New York's urban youth culture, and started the book as a collection of personal images, that he began to build on over the years; since coming to New York from the Sydney College of Arts in 1990.
My response- Muhammed Ali Portrait
Independent development
After reflecting on all the tasks, the artist and project I have decided to develop further for my independent project is Ben Watts' Big Up portrait. The parts of his project that appeal to me are the saturated, bright colours of the photos, the collage layering style, and the overall high-energy, cultural feel. I want to produce imagery of similar vibrance to him and showcase aspects of my world with the same presentation. I will photograph friends, family, strangers, objects and settings which I feel obtain the similar maximalist flashy energy to his subjects.