Portraiture

One of Diane Arbus' portaits of a woman and baby

Application

Portraiture is the art of taking a person and expressing their inner qualities through the face and their position. A portrait is a picture, photgraph, etc of a person, usually a monarch or important figure in society. Portrait backgrounds are also important because it tells people about the background of the person in the picture. People such as Diane Arbus, a photographer famed for exposing faces and a person's inner self, often did this which madepeople realise how real portraiture could make people.

Context




Portraiture tends to take photographs of people with either their whole body showing, the upper half or just the head; the persons head usually looks as if it is looking outside the portrait. The style depends usually on how important a person is. Monarchy usually have had their upper half showing or their heads. Portraits are designed so that they can be shown in something important such as a manor house or a book. Richard Avedon was seen as a fashion photographer and used portaiture to emphasise the appearance of others (photo above).






Techniques





Two models photograhed by Avedon



Larry Clark's book entitled "Tulsa"



A traditional portrait and full body portrait of the Queen

 


Today, images of this type come from truth. Portraiture was formerly flawed or faked in previous centuries which is shown through the portraits of former monarchs. However at later dates it differed enabling other people to see the truth behind the portrait. Larry Clark was one of those people; Clark was an "insider" in his town of Tulsa, America. He photographed his own life in Tulsa and published it as a book. It showed the truth about his life in Tulsa and how he became the man he was.