EYV Zoom Meeting – 31 October 2019

EYV Zoom Meeting 31 October 2019

“Portraiture”

Led by Robert Bloomfield

The topic for this meeting was “Portraiture”. Robert explained that although previous meetings had been around the topics of assignments he thought this more general topic was relevant to many parts of the EYV course.

Robert gave a presentation based on some theoretic aspects of portraiture drawing on examples of the styles of various artists/photographers.

These included Irving Penn, notable for his studio portraits using ambient light with reflectors.

Jean Baptiste – referred to in the notes for the course.

He also described the concept of “Rembrandt Lighting” , a style of lighting the face with one side lit, and one side in shadow. This in turn gives prominence to the nose shadow. This lighting arose because of the design of Rembrandt’s studio with a single high window, which was north facing so gave a diffused light, diffused even more on occasions by translucent paper across it.

The other concept he referred to was styles of pose for the models, including the classical style “contraposto” where the model’s weight is more on one leg than the other, leading to a curve in the body with the hip thrust out. This is exemplified in the Venus de Milo from classical times and Michaelangelo’s David.

Overall these were the key things I learned from this, but the main lesson was that formal portraits are very much a constructed image, the dress and pose of the model, together with the lighting and background establish an image the photographer wishes to create. This is in distinction to me from the candid images of people taken by street photographers. Although there is clearly an overlap, as the documentary showing Don McCullin working (which I have described elsewhere) demonstrated his rapport with the subject by which he was able to create the image he sought.