Old Favourites

With the opening of the upcoming show "A New American Portrait" approaching, this might be a good opportunity to talk about portraiture a bit. And what better way than to delve right in and to show some portraits? I did a little search online for some of the "classic" portraits that are amongst my favourites, and I managed to find most of the ones that I could think of. So here we go.

Edward Steichen's portrait of JP Morgan is quite well known, and quite a portrait it is! This portrait was taken in 1903 - an era still very comfortable with painting, not long after photography had begun to replace painting as the popular means of creating a portrait. But then maybe this portrait will bore you - and if it does it's worthwhile to think about why. Also have you noticed that's not a knife in JP Morgan's hand there?

August Sander is widely considered to be one of the godfathers of modern portraiture, and it's not hard to see why. This is a fantastic portrait, three young farmers (yes, that's right), proudly posing, around the time of Steichen's portrait (I think just a few years later). It's interesting how you wouldn't easily get this same effect any longer even if you had all of Sander's skills: Cameras are everywhere now, and people know how to pose. Of course, back then, people also knew how to pose, but it's a different kind of posing, isn't it? Look at Sander's equally famous pastry chef:

Of course, the pose is not the only thing needed for a good portrait. One of the earlier masters of photographic composition in portraiture is Yousuf Karsh, who, unfortunately, is well known for portraits that aren't nearly as nice as his best work. Sure, you've seen his Winston Churchill - really just a cliché of a photo! It's like one of those standard portraits that painters had been painting so long. But look at this portrait:

I love how this photo conveys a sense of deep trust and understanding between the photographer and the artist, cellist Pablo Casals. It's almost like you don't really have to see much of Casals to still get a portrait of him - in contrast, Winston Churchill from the back would be a fat neck in a somewhat ill-fitting suit. For me, this photo of Casals says a lot about good portraiture - it is more than just photography, and it is not just the equivalent of painting.

Bill Brandt's portrait of painter Francis Bacon is another great case of making composition work, since it violates almost every aspect of "good" photography - the subject isn't looking at the camera, there's that lantern that's not quite in the center, the path leading out of the photo... but it just works so well! Needless to say, in order to get something like this to work, you really have to know what you're doing.

The complete opposite of creating a great portrait, in which each and every commonly suggested element of good composition is violated, is Arnold Newman's portrait of composer Igor Stravinsky:

What brilliant play of shapes - Igor Stravinsky dwarfed by the piano, whose open cover looks like a "b" (as in "b flat")!

I had two other portraits in mind when preparing this list, one I couldn't find. Richard Avedon's work is widely know, and just as in the case of Yousuf Karsh, I actually prefer his lesser known work. I tried hard to find the very intimate photos he did of his ailing father, and there were nowhere to be found online. But this portrait of former President Eisenhower comes somewhat close to the quality of the photos of his father:

There's a lot of subtle humanity in this photo, something that, perhaps not surprisingly, is even stronger in the photos of his ailing father, but that appears to be often missing in his work - despite the often convincing power of Avedon's work.

Lastly, I like this following self-portrait done by Helmut Newton, whose work in general I'm not particularly fond of:

Self portraits often don't allow you to read much into them, but this one does. First of all, you actually have to locate the person whose self portrait this is - you find him sandwiched between the reflection of one of his nude models (who is striking a pose) and Newton's wife (who appears quite bored). And right in between there stands the photographer, hunched over his camera, wearing a trenchcoat. You can say what you want about Helmut Newton's work, but this is quite a good self-portrait!

Needless to say, portraiture is a matter of taste, and you might find these photos so incredibly boring and prefer others... or not classics at all! But I think these classics do deserve to be counted among the great portraits - and I'm sure, once I post this I'll remember other ones that I forgot.

Comments

[jaime alvarez]

WHoOPS! I meant to place that somewhere else.. I guess in respect to the portraits the artist at the exhibition enjoy, I always think of the way Woodman really worked with the frame and subject matter. Probably one of the first people that I saw that really opened me up to rethinking of how to point the camera on to someone.

Also made me think of Sante's Evidence book. The evidence photography of 1930's make some beautiful post-Mortem photographs. It really trascends its earlier history of documenting an infants death, and moves it beyond to post criminal action.... Evidence if you will.

[jaime alvarez]

only two words: Francesca Woodman.

[Sunil Gangadharan]

Jen,
Classic post. Loved the selections. Just a couple of days ago I was lamenting the demise of portrait painting (http://www.artandperception.com/2007/06/some-influences.html ) and here you are organizing this... I will come by sometime this week.

[digital photographer]

Very interesting photos! These photos have a "soul", i can say. Modern photography is much more professional, ideal colors, forms and textures do not always tell a story to the viewer. These are awesome photos.

[sam shin]

hello,
if the portrait of j.p.morgan by edward is well known, does it have any monetary value? how many were there actually? it is a great self portrait.
very powerfull feeling when you look at. your info. would help a lot on my research....

[David E Leimkuehler]

Hello,

I would like to purchase either a jpeg or the photograph of Mr JP Mprgan as shown in your sight. Would you contact me with price and shipping details?

Thank you so much

David