por·trai·ture
Noun
1. The art of creating portraits
2. Graphic and detailed description, esp. of a person
What is portraiture?
‘A notion of identity – the constancy of a person in different circumstances
and throughout life.’
A notion of identity, a form of representation, a visual record of people at
various stages in their life; this is (from my commercial point of view) the
basic meaning of portraiture in society. It can take its form in weddings, graduations,
anniversaries, family portraits, annual reports, events and so on.
Is it still considered portraiture when it is for identification purposes, i.e.
Drivers license, school/office photos? I believe so, not a very artistic, creative or aesthetically or visually pleasing form but it still is as it is a notion of identity at a point of time.
Thoughts?
Portraiture indeed is a very broad topic. I agree Portraiture is a representation of an individual/subject. The end result is to capture a sense of likeness depicting who the subjects are as individuals.
ReplyDeleteWhat is interesting is that with time our notion of identity changes, hence so do portraits. As an example during medieval times the portraits were quite complex with all their symbolic content. Careful consideration was applied to the positioning of the subject, the background images as well as the objects in the frame. All of which had significant meaning. With technology changing so rapidly it has changed the medium and subject matter of portraiture. Our portraits are becoming interactive, this changes the way in which we think and feel. Todays contemporary photographers have used surveillance footage, shopping receipts as a form of portraits depicting ones identity through their own personal actions. In reference to your post Kate I believe it is portraiture when it is for identification purposes as this is a form of representation at one point in a person/subjects life.
It's fascinating the levels in which portraiture can be taken literally, symbolically, socially, culturally. And with our own areas of interest i.e. documentary, commercial and fashion the representation of a portrait is completely different.
I think it is interesting you mention the subject matter of portraiture has changed, Bec. This made me think about the digital self portrait (selfie), and how it is more, as you said, interactive by advancements in technology. We can be doing a simple mundane activity, but take a portrait of oneself doing such things, such as waiting for transport etc. A modern day self portrait.
DeleteAlso, to go back to Pauline's discussion on the millions of images in the world today, and why we continue to take images, this quote in the handout she gave us of the 1/125 tumblr blog suits this type of portraiture perfectly - I feel - as society we are taking selfies everyday thanks to the ease and instantaneousness in which facebook, twitter and instagram allow us to do so.
" A special person or place, when subjected to mass reproduction and distribution in image form, may become less special..."
This link to a humorous yet thought provoking video somewhat reiterates todays 'selfie culture', and I find it interesting they go back throughout time and talk about self portraits.
http://news.yahoo.com/video/whoknew-selfies-popular-smartphone-self-060000627.html
Just watched that video Kate! It's pretty interesting. I wonder why it is that we take self portraits?
ReplyDeleteI'm not talking so much about the thoughtless snap with an iphone- but rather the considered and planed self portrait. As stated in the video it's something that has been done since before the invention on photography- painters often would immortalise their likeness in a self portrait. What do you think is the main reason we choose to do this?
Is it purely born from vanity - or is there something more personal.
When I started out with photography I mainly shot self portraits.
Now looking back at that I think I did it mainly to discover a bit more about myself- I used self portraiture as a vehicle for a bit of self exploration.
What do you think?