A ʻPortraitʼ may be interpreted in its widest sense of ʻphotography concerned with portraying people with an emphasis on their identity as individualsʼ.
Before I started on this project, I looked at a variaty of photographers that were inspiring me. I mostly look for interesting but simple portrait shots that really shows the indentity of the model. With that in mind I found some very interesting photographers.
I saw Spencer Murphy as one of the most interesting photographer. This photo (see above) has something artistic about it what I really like. What I love most about this photo is the face expression of this woman. She looks strong but also a bit affected by something. It is an interesting picture as it lets you think what she could think about.
The second photographer that inspired me was Chuck Close. His portrait of Kate Moss is amazing. It has a nice depth of field to it and the black and white completes the picture. Her face expression is, again, very interesting.
Annabelle
I had a lovely model: Annabelle, and I would like to thank her for her time. I wanted to try something different than the photographers I just described, but with the same intention, headshots.
I tried different types of portraits. The first one is an close up which shows her beautiful eyes. She has a strong face expression.
What I wanted to accomplish with this photo is that you look hear straight in the eye and try to figure out who she is, what she has maybe been through and so on. I believe that a photo says more than a thousand words. I chose to create almost a low key picture to draw the attention to the eyes even more.
I also did this with the second photo. That look in that photo could “kill” you. She has strong eyes and basically she looks right through you. Again with the low key I wanted to draw the attention to the face and in particular the eyes.
The third photo differs a little from the others. Though you can see her face expression very well, the hat makes it more artistic and abstract. It gives a tough look and shows who she really is.
Series
Because I love shooting, I also created two little series because I wanted to try different types of photographs.
This is the serie from the low key photographs. The third photo of this one is a wider angle of Annabelle, but with the same attitude. It compliments her as she is and I think this is a really strong serie. Therefore, it is my all time favorite serie.
I created a colour version as well of photograph of the hat in black and white. Because her hair had a beautiful colour as well as her complementing hat and her blue eyes gives these pictures a vibrant but tough look. The black of her shirt let the colours even pop out more, which makes the eyes even stronger.