'A painting, drawing, photograph, or engraving of a person, especially one depicting only the face or head and shoulders.' -Oxford English Dictionary. 'Portraiture is a very old art form going back at least to ancient Egypt, where it flourished from about 5,000 years ago. Before the invention of photography a painted, sculpted, or drawn portrait was the only way to record the appearance of someone. But portraits have always been more than just a record. They have been used to show the power, importance, virtue, beauty, wealth, taste, learning or other qualities of the sitter.'-Tate
'A portrait is an evocation of a person. It gives the sense of that person. It doesn’t necessarily need to look like the person but it would have to give some impression.'-Lesley Stevenson, Senior Paintings Conservator at the Scottish National Gallery
'I think a portrait is probably different things to different people but in general terms it’s a depiction of a person which can be idealised to flatter them or it can be an impression of their personality or it can even be an abstract depiction of some element about them.' -David Taylor, Senior Curator, Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
Furthermore a portrait becomes a very important part in photography due to its simple looks even though its submerged with high technicality.
The selfie
CHARACTER RECOGNITION: MYRA GREENE
Selfie is slang for Self-Portrait. It is used today to suggest a photographic self-portrait taken on a mobile device and shared onto social media. In 2013, "Selfie" was word of the year in the Oxford English Dictionary. The inclusion of front facing cameras on smart phones and the popularity of social media sites like Instagram and Snapchat have made the posting of Selfies increasingly popular as a form of photographic self-expression. The Selfie accounts for a large proportion of the digital photographs people make. 24 billion selfies were uploaded to the Internet last year (2016). The so called 'selfie' is definitely the most popular use of photography. It has become so normalised that people forget its deeper origins and truthful meaning.
Myra Greene is a photographer who's most popular work revolves around the 'selfie'. Her work is heart wrenching and touching due to its deeper mental and physical meaning. She creates portrait images of herself using traditional photographic processes. In the project Character Recognition she focusses on different parts of her face as a process of recognition and exploration. The recognition is important and carries weight. Myra wanted to express herself and be clear that she was moe than the colour of her skin. This project allowed her to express features on her face that people should pay attention to, for example, eyes, ears, mouth, neck- not her race or ethnicity. After she was done taking these portraits she would specifically edit them in black and white or alter the colour balance, the effect of this is to simply enhance the texture of our skin and the small pieces of us that make 'us'.
MY TAKE ON MYRA GREENE
Edited pictures
Ben Watts
Ben Watts is a photographer who adds a theme of comedic sense within his portraits. He photographs celebrities and cuts out important parts of the picture and bits of it he finds a ‘key’ element. Moving on with this, he would stick on the cut out pictures onto a background which he furthermore decides to decorate fully and artistically. For example he will add vibrant colours through the use of crayons and highlighters, the use with crayons allows us to have a sense of texture within the picture themselves , he also adds different shades and materials of tissue to help emphasise the importance of culture the person he has photographed represents.
For my first try my class had been assigned to make a collage on Muhammad Ali. The reason we picked Muhammad Ali was because he was one of the greatest boxers in history, the first fighter to win the world heavyweight championship on three separate occasions. In addition, he was known for his social message of black pride and black resistance to white domination and for refusing induction into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam war. Ben Watts tends to follow the path of making these collages of people important in history to him or to others.
My take on Ben Watts
Development one
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 and then turn them into collages.
The key theme I want to portray through my development for Ben Watts work is love. My first development is bedews on people that I love and bring me that sense of comfortability. The main reason I ended up choosing Ben Watts as my development artist is because his collages are really keen at expressing feelings.
Original pictures
Final product
Development number two
Continuing with Ben Ways and the theme of love I have decided to focus on a specific person, this person being my father. We decided to go out for a day in London to his favourite area and doing his favourite things. Whilst taking the pictures, I took them on a low exposure to allow the small amount of vibrance and light within the setting seep through. As for the collage itself, I went along with extremely bright primary colours, adding more fun with the patterns and textures within the collage. This emphasises the fun and excitement within the collage.