Portraiture

[Mike Lopez]

Hi,

I would like to hear your recommendations on portraiture work to seek out. I want to look at more books and work in this area. I'm familiar with Weston's portraits and Avedon's work in the west, but I would like to look at much more. Any recommended books I should look for? Your favorites? Thanks.

Mike

P.S. You might say I'm more interested in "environmental" portraiture, and not studio work, but I'm not very discriminating at this point.

 

[ann]

check arnold newman for environmental portraiture

 

[hortense]

Checked Amazon.com and can't find the a book on this subject no anything on Arnold Newman.

 

[ann]

amazing!!!!!!!! let me check

 

[ann]

try this
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...bs_b_2_1/104-0617232-1266337?v=glance&s=books

i had no trouble at all find several of his books, perhaps the browser was acting up

try a title

One Mind's Eye

 

[CharlieM]

Try Jane Bown, her work and her book, 'Faces: The Creative Process Behind Great Portraits'. I haven't checked the link, but amazon must have it.

 

[jimgalli]

Hi Mike. I'm also stumbling along trying to learn portraiture. As I test different lenses I've been posting pages with some of the results at my little web page. Here are a few;

http://tonopahpictures.0catch.com/Bokeh/Bausch&LombProjectionPetzval.html

http://tonopahpictures.0catch.com/Bokeh/Velostigmat.html

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http://tonopahpictures.0catch.com/MichaelandYousef.html

I'm after a certain look that the antique lenses have a corner on. I love the look that Quinn Jacobsen gets with his wet plate collodion. Not for everyone and certainly a bit harsh but very soulful.

Jim

 

[SuzanneR]

For some historic portratiture look at the work of August Sander, Paul Strand, Alfred Steiglitz, Gertrude Kasebier, Julia Margaret-Cameron, Lewis Hine, and Dorothea Lange. There have also been some very good portraits made by more photojournalistic types, for example, Cariter Bresson's portrait of Matisse is wonderful! A few National Geographic photographers such as Steve McCurry, Bill Allard and Sam Abell have made excellent portraits. For more contemporary commercial portrature in addition to Newman and Avedon, look at Irving Penn, and Gregory Heisler. A few fine art photographers also come to mind, Sally Mann's "At Twelve", Andrea Modica's "Treadwell", and for some more surreal portraits, Ralph Eugene Meatyard.

Hope that gets you started, and gives you some ideas for your own work.

 

[jmdavis]

Mike,

Offhand, I would think Weston (any of them). Arbus. And a photographer that I've known since my days in advertising (and who teaches here at the University) Tom Daniel.

Here's Tom's webpage:

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There are many others, of course, including Strand, Avedon, Sally Mann, Maplethorpe, Eugene Smith, et al.

Mike

 

[Changeling1]

"Your Friends and Mine"

Hi,

I would like to hear your recommendations on portraiture work to seek out. I want to look at more books and work in this area. I'm familiar with Weston's portraits and Avedon's work in the west, but I would like to look at much more. Any recommended books I should look for? Your favorites? Thanks.

Mike

P.S. You might say I'm more interested in "environmental" portraiture, and not studio work, but I'm not very discriminating at this point.

You should check Kenny Roger's book "Your Friends and Mine". This 1987 coffee table size book contains about 80 celebrity portraits in both b/w and color mostly shot in the 8x10 format and printed in Roger's very own darkroom. The portraits were shot both in the studio and on location with interesting comments by Rogers accompanying each portrait.

I received this book as a gift one Christmas and while I'm not a big fan of Kenny Roger's music or acting I was more than surprised at his skill with LF cameras and lighting. The portraits of those no longer with us are even more touching now...Ray Charles, Dudley Moore, Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, Ronald Reagan, Sammy Davis, Jr. and others. There's even a beautiful environmental portrait of one the greatest portrait photographers of all time- Yousuf Karsh.

 

[Struan Gray]

Not as well known, but as an online autodidact these three have been inspirational for me, despite the fact I do few portraits:

Llyod Erlick

Jeff Spirer

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[Wayne]

Jock Sturges.

 

[bjorke]

Don't worry about which lens, work on the relationship while shooting. This is far more importanty than any technical aspect.

(Last week's dead-simple fave, shot w/my old Yashica-Mat - frame #13)