An art form undergoing reevaluation is portrait photography. In one particular case, the artist's portraits are a reaction to the character of portraiture being traditionally confrontational. Characterization became careless and too casual, and this photographer tired of seeing this his whole life of taking pictures.
He has a point here. There is a misconception that media portraiture is a cool profession, but it does tend to be quite dull. It is only when the photographer gives the word do the subjects in the picture start doing curious poses for different settings.
To break this old tradition in this line of work, he proposes engaging the sitter in a more extensive way. Creating 13 portraits of creative people from the city of Pittsburgh was done by collaboration. The sitter can give a number of suggestions and even choose the place where she wants to be photographed. This is not a common practice in the profession.
None of his projects involved any preconceived plans, the artist said. Essential to the collaboration is a preliminary meeting whereby the general concept of the photograph is drafted. Aided by the sitter, he begins looking for a site that would work perfectly for them. Sometimes a set is constructed, and it is usually made with a steel sheet and mirrored glass box to create a confined cell.
A sculptor decided to have his photograph along with his work, and a writer picked a bar scenario. Using bridges as a setting was an idea, but it came out seemingly accidental.
These photographs show that his particular skill is in his complex and sophisticated lighting effects. The effects are not extra features added to the photograph during developing and printing. Using colored gels with the lighting equipment allows him to create attractive color effects. The length of time it would take for the exposure for these photographs is tedious. The nocturnal portrait of a person outside a bar required an exposure of some 15 minutes, during which the sitter could literally walk into the camera's range and walk out of it.
Afterwards, he could show up again with a wand of light and trace letters in the air which can be recorded by the camera. There is no trace on the film of people having been in the bar during the exposure. Photographs that were taken in the garden of a factory indicate that what a picture usually needs is just simple and sensible lighting to work.
There is a sense of professionalism that he brings out of his work, never mind that he actually just learned photography on his own. Because he seems to have this sense of wanting to have total control over his work, collaboration may be a bit tricky. In the end, it is still the artist who has the last say. On show are reversal prints that have been printed professionally.
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You will find that further information on cat portraits artwork is on that site. Expert resources on high quality oil paintings from photos are located on that site.
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