portraiture

Application, Context And Tech
In your posts you will need to discuss  the journey that Portraiture has taken over its' history. For example the movement from Rich and Powerful people having expensive portraits made for them to the works of Portraiture photographers depicting the inner conflicts and catching their subjects in moments when they are least prepared. 

Look at work of at least one of the following photographers and discuss:

Diane Arbus (Matthaei family portraits)
Walker Evans
Richard Avedon
Tony Vaccaro
Larry Clark

Diane Arbus 

Diane Arbus had a particular style of photography, she liked to photograph the real image, no fake smiles or laughs, she wanted that original fearful depression look to show people what life was really like.

Diane Arbus got listed as one of the most destinctive photographers of the 20th century. she just became known for her unearthly, bitter portraits.

A quote from the photographer herself; Arbus was always a slightly mysterious character

                            

When photographing the Matthaei family, Diane Arbus didn't go for your typical portrait. She liked to capture the mood rather than producing a portrait with a fake emotion. The image above is of Marcella, looking depressed or angered in some way. 

In 1968, Arbus once wrote to a friend; "all families are creepy in a way". People were amazed at the sort of families Diane was based around, she was focusing on devoted, happy families. yet in the photo's she produced - all of the family members were looking creepy and depressed. It came as a confusion to many people with never got solved as before anyone understood her reason for taking those interesting photo's, she took her own life in 1971.

In the 1960's, America, she took pictures of 'the outsiders'. These people included; freaks, waifs, transvestites, nudists, identical twins and strip teasers. Her reason for capturing people like them in particular was because was trying to document the aspects of society that many people overlook. 

                    

The child in the image above was holding a toy hand grenade. Diane took so many pictures of this young boy that he started to get annoyed or stressed.

In most of the photo's she took, it generally seemed almost like she was masking other people with her own emotions. Diane had quite a troubled life and in the portraits she took, all the people were either looking vaguely depressed or they were listed as freaks.

Robert Capa and Tony Viccaro

Robert Capa/Tony Vaccaro

• Describe the different circumstances that these photographers experienced as Photojournalists in WW2 
• Find and upload to your blog some work of theirs

Eddie Adams

•  Describe the difference between the video footage and the photograph of the "Execution"

Remember to get a Merit grade


You will need to cover the above evidence in sentences/paragraphs and not as answers to the questions and then with you own thoughts and arguments discuss, what makes Photojournalism a reliable/unreliable style of photography  

To get Distinction grade

You will need to cover the merit question and then apply this definition to another example that you come up with yourself E.g. Modern approaches to photo gathering at news events such as crowd sourcing, twitter etc. Are these more effective?

• Describe the different circumstances that these photographers experienced as Photojournalists in WW2 

Robert Capa

• Robert Capa was a Hungarian war photographer and photojournalist
• He covered five different wars, these being:

 - the Spanish Civil War

 - the Second Sino-Japanese 

 - War World War II across Europe

 - the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and 

 - the First Indochina War.

Robert Capa was a war photographer who hated war, he once said;

 "the war photographers most fervent wish is for unemployment"

In the many different wars that Capa witnessed he captured a

In these conflicts Capa captured an astonishing range of experiences, from both frightful images from the frontline at the battle of Normandy, to the celebrations of the Liberation of Paris, and from the effects of war on civilians to soldiers who are left dead in the wake of destruction. Effected by the monstrosities that he witnessed first-hand, Capa is reported to have said he would stop reporting on war and that he never believed in another conflict after the Second World War. However, he continued to report on conflicts until, sadly, he was killed in 1954 in Vietnam, stepping on a landmine during his reportage of the First Indochina War.