PORTRAITS - FINAL PORTRAIT

Working for this project I spent a lot of time on Platon's website. His portraits have different styles and achieve different feelings and emotions, but there is something that remains constant: they are immediate and intuitive - eyes, pose, props rapidly create precise emotion and efficaciously tell a story about the subject. I really appreciated the calm and quiet - and less known - portraits of artist and musicians, but for the final picture I decided to embrace Platon's strong, powerful and well-known portraits.

In the picture below Francesco, that has his legs and foot on the stool, looks fierce and proud. He powerfully looks us from above. The light cropping emphasize his boldness; he looks big and successful. His pose, with his arm and elevated fisting hand, is dynamic and strong, but from his expression we can see he is relaxed, comfortable and also confident. Platon usually does black and white portraits, but for this picture I decided to use colors, that give the portrait depth and emphasize the texture of the metallic and reflecting blue jacket. The black background and the deep black in general add deepness and tridimensionality and accentuate the colors. He is frontally illuminated with diffused lighting and he pops out from the darkness. What I like the most is the sense of equilibrium and balance of the scene: his pose and his expression give a strong and dramatic look to the scene, but the black background and the diffused light add a layer of quietness, calm and reassuring confidence.

PORTRAITS - PLAYING WITH THE MODEL

I’ve never shot in a studio with a model before therefore I was wondering how interacting with a him or her would have been. I was fortunate enough to have extrovert and photogenic friends as models but it turned out pretty difficult to recreate the poses and generally the ideas stuck in my head. The key to overcome this problem was good communication with the model and a relaxed and comfortable model. A good starting point to start shooting was showing pictures to the model that explained what was I looking for. Explaining to the model what emotions and what background story I was trying to achieve has been very important. Standing behind a camera, being illuminated by studio lights and maybe being watched by other people can be at first intimidating, therefore I decided to sit down my models at first. In the following pictures I told Stefano to just relax and do everything he wanted to feel comfortable and relaxed.

After a long day of school Stefano immediately loosed his tie and started unbuttoning his shirt. While he was doing that I took some pictures. They look natural and emphasize his feelings. He looks tired but at the same time he is relaxed. The way he sat down and the way he looked at the camera while being photographed shows a certain extroversion and comfort of which I’ve taken advantage during the photoshoots.

Another important thing needed to achieve natural poses and portraits was constant movement. Making the model continuously move not only makes him more part of the photoshoot and more comfortable but creates dynamic, more natural and not fake portraits.

Trying to achieve dramatic poses with shy models isn’t an easy task, but showing them good photos about them reassured them. Hearing what they don’t like about their photos and trying together to fix those things also helped. What I learned with these photo shooting is that portraits are about understanding the model and good communication with them.

PORTRAITS - PERSPECTIVE DISTORTION

One of the unique and most interesting things in Platon's portraits is the use of perspective distortion. That makes body parts look bigger and more imposing than they would normally look. They magnify the sense of power and the intimidating look of the models.

I tried achieving that using a wide angle lens, but It turned out that obtaining that effect was incredibly difficult. The main problem was the size of the background that could not contain the whole photograph. I also didn't experiment much with the distance of the camera from the subject. In my opinion I also wasn't able to utilize this effect in a meaningful way, because I wasn't able to clearly emphasize any emotion.

I photographed Laura from above trying to make her look smaller and more vulnerable and delicate. Same story with the pictures of Francesco, where no clear perspective distortion is visible. With a better understanding of the lens functioning, with a bigger background and with more experimentation the result would have been definitely more convincing.

PORTRAITS - QUIET MOMENTS

Inspired by the less popular portraits of Platon, featuring relaxed poses, closed eyes and often full-length portraits I decided to experiment with moody atmosphere and quiet moments. Calm and less tense portraits often feature closed eyes. The subject looks like he is deep thinking and even dreaming. The viewer watching the portraits wonders what the subject is thinking about. Other things can give hints about that, like a smile or the general pose. In the following pictures the models are posing relaxed and peacefully.

Concentrating on the eyes I achieved a contemplative atmosphere also making the viewer not look directly on camera. Calm picture feature the subject not looking at something precise, but their gaze lost in space.

I've also experimented with props like the headphones in the following photos to suggest a certain type of feeling and a precise story. Stefano seated and with his eyes closed looks completely captured in the music he is listening to.

The background has an important role too. White background contributes to more positive emotions. Black background gives a sadder look to the whole composition, especially with harsh lateral lighting that creates dramatic shadows. The use of a black background and direct, diffused lighting that completely illuminates the model's face creates calm and quietness.

Regarding the light setup for the high key photographs with the white background I used a studio light with a diffusor that illuminates the subject frontally to eliminate the shadows and I tried to use a light behind the model directed to the background to give colour uniformity to it. For the black background I used a light with a soft box that illuminated the subject laterally to create some shadows and adding a dramatic look to the pictures. 

PORTRAITS - FACELESS

There is something powerful in the eyes of the subject you are portraying. They are magnetizing, the first thing we search in a portrait. They create a strong connection with the viewer and deeply define the feelings he will experience looking at the portrait. Through the eyes of the subjects we can read a lot of different stories. These things give Platon's portraits a soul and their distinctive power.

But what if we took the eyes and the whole expression away? What happens if we hide the most obvious thing in a portrait? In these photographs I experimented with faceless portraits to understand the importance of the eyes and of the facial expression. What type of atmosphere and feelings can I achieve with the absence of the face?

The main characteristics in the following photographs is the sense of mystery and insecurity. The viewer cannot connect with the subject, due to the absence of the eyes in the composition. He's forced to look somewhere else, to look at other details in the composition. Using a low key studio setup, that features a black background and one studio light with diffusor that illuminates the subject from just one side, the sense of mystery is enhanced, thanks to the dramatic shadows created.

In this pictures the face in near completely obscured, the viewer can only imagine what his expression is. The only thing he can focus on is his statuary pose and the metallic grey jacket that pops out from the shadows.

In this one the subject, without revealing his expression, looks in the darkness. The only details on which he can focus are the clothing and the simple pose.

Without the face other things become important in the portrait like the body language and the props (like the clothing). In this picture the subject has his head lowered and he is pulling his jacket. He looks like he is containing himself, ready to explode. Another detail that pops out is the texture of the jacket directly illuminated that emphasizes his shoulders. Overall I think these portraits have a sense of tension and mystery.

I've also experimented with objects that obscure the face. In the picture above her swishing hair distort and confuse the viewer than cannot figure out in which direction she is standing. That happens because the eyes in portrait are a like reference point for the viewer.

In this other picture I used a nearly transparent veil that steals the attention from her face and - thanks also to the lighting - add a layer of quietness and soul to the portrait.

The last picture looks sad and mysterious. Only her hair and her hands, that are moving nervously, are illuminated. The subject looks weak and vulnerable. These feelings are emphasized by her self-contained pose and by the angle of the photo-shoot.

Looking at these pictures is clear that eyes have a key role in portraits. They give the viewer security, being the way they magnetically connect to the subject. They are like a reference point and a powerful tool to tell a story about the subject and they strongly define the emotions of a photograph.

Regarding the technicalities of the shooting I shot in Manual Mode keeping low ISO (ISO 100) and a small aperture (F 6 to F 11) to overcome overexposure due to the flashes. I also used a fast shutter (1/150) speed to freeze the model movement (like the hair in the 4th picture).

PORTRAITS - CHOOSING THE ARTIST

There is something immediate and intuitive about Platon photographs that really inspires me. The way everything from the pose, to the props, to the subject's eyes contributes to the overall mood and tell different stories about the subject is really fascinating. All politicians and important people’s portraits look for example powerful and intimidating and show confidence, on the other hand artist’s portraits are quiet moments, where the subjects are relaxed and contemplating. Every feeling, every atmosphere is often magnified by the use of perspective distortion (like foreshortening) thanks to the use of wide-angle lenses.

Platon, Leonard Cohen, c.2010

I usually prefer street photographs - like the ones of Lee Friedlander - where the subject and the surrounding landscape blend together; photographs dense of objects that require the viewer to look harder and longer. I also appreciate the honesty and authenticity of these photos where the subjects don't pose and often don't even know they are being photographed (like in Friedlander and Cunningham's compositions).

Platon, Wycleaf Jean, c.2010

Platon, Tony Bennett, 2015

But I've never shot in a studio, nor have I ever experimented with studio light and different types of lenses. Having a studio with a wide array of lenses and studio equipment fueled my curiosity and my wish to discover a new part of photography. I'm looking forward to use different studio setups to achieve different atmospheres and feelings and different lenses to achieve those characteristic distortions of Platon. I'm also intrigued by the interaction and communication with the model that's going to pose. The photographs that will inspire my photo-shooting will definitely be the portraits by Platon of musician, artist and sport-celebrities that feature contemplative movements or in general more dynamic and playful poses, than the ones he's most famous for.

Platon, Wynton Marsalis, c.2010

PORTRAITS - THE ARTISTS

Our third mini-tasks introduces us to the world of portrait photography. For our inspiration we received three really different artists, that have worked with portrait in really different ways. The first one is Platon (born 1968), famous for his studio portraits of powerful and well-knowns subject, like Putin, Obama or Snowden, that appeared on many influential magazine's covers like Wired and Times Magazine. 

Platon, Vladimir Putin, c.2008

Platon, Arnold Schwarzenegger, c.2010

Because he shoots in studio Platon can control everything; from the lighting, to the pose and the props. These three elements tell many things about the subject and define the mood and the emotions the viewer will experience. Another predominant feature in Platon's portraits is the central presence of the subject's eyes, that magnetically attract the viewer and give further informations about the subject. He uses other techniques - like foreshortening (perspective distortion) - and particular poses to magnify the sense of power and importance of the subjects.

Platon, Micheal Bloomberg, c.2010

The second artist is a completely different one: Bill Cunningham (born 1929). He is a fashion photographer for the New York Times and he is best known for his candid and street photography. For 50 years Bill with his blue jacket and his bike has explored the street of New York and has photographed people - usually not celebrities and not posing people - focusing on their clothing and personal style.  With his editorials and photographs he has created a visual history - 50 years long - of New York's styles and trends. Toady he produces weekly themed editorials for the New York Times photographing many subject wearing particular type of clothes, with same colors or patterns.

Bill Cunningham, Grr published on the New York Times, 2011

Bill Cunningham, Swells published on the New York Times, 2011

The third artist, the one that intrigued me the most, is Lee Friedlander (born 1934). He is a street photographer, a flexible artist that loves experimentation. He is best know for his work with the Mannequins and the shop windows, where he uses reflections to disorient the viewer and to add a layer of mystery to the whole composition.

Lee Friedlander, Tucson, 2011

In Friedlander's pictures the urban landscape that surrounds the subject plays a central role. His pictures dense with objects are less intuitive and immediate than those of Cunningham and Platon, and require the viewer to pause on the details and to examine the photo carefully. In a lot of his works the face of the main subject cannot be seen, that adds mystery to the photo and emphasize body language and other details in the composition. He has also experimented with self portraits and the use of mirrors in his most recent works.

Lee Friedlander, New York City, 1963

Lee Friedlander, New York City, 1967 

Lee Friedlander, New Orleans, 1996

All his pictures in the 60's had a precise scope: to document the evolving american social landscape. Being a street photographer, unlike Platon, he can't control much when taking pictures. Subject cannot pose, light cannot change; his photos are all about right timing and capturing the decisive moment.

Lee Friedlander, Chicago, 1968