Portrait or Portraiture – The Role of the Artist along that Continuum

 

 

I have taken portraits using miles and miles of film in the past 45 years. In many instances, persons who could not afford the portrait taken in a studio, sat still as I continuously talked to them hoping to get an unforced smile or a relaxed demeanor.

My street photography was all about people who did not sit down for a portrait. They moved, they ran, or they were obstructed by others in a crowd. As such I thought of such work as portraiture, where I was looking into a resemblance, a representation of human behavior and attitude through that one or surrounding few people. I was not aiming at an exact capture of that person’s appearance. In other word, I was not taking a portrait.

Yet, over time that distinction became blurred, and even unnecessary. Perhaps Oscar Wilde said it best in The Picture of Dorian Grey:

"Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself."

I think this reasoning applies to all media of capturing human anatomy and behavior, and not only to painting.

To illustrate, I looked through my scanned photos.

A.    Backstage of a circus, Baltimore, Maryland. This is the photo at the top of the page. I have not recorded the date when I took this photo – I would guess around 35 years ago. The show ended and we were passing by the large tent when I saw these two performers and the while pony. A short while ago these performers were all smile and gave the impression they were the happiest people on earth. Now, the show had ended. And I wanted to capture that moment. Is it a portrait or portraiture? Is it like the clown crying under his happy-painted face? Which face represents the true clown?

The negative has deteriorated over the years perhaps giving the photograph a more foggy distinction between a portrait and portraiture.

 

B.  At a concert, Washington D.C. I was using a 1954 Kiev rangefinder camera that afternoon in 2005. It was the way she had crossed her arms that “spoke” to me. I do not know if she was sad or just pensive. I consider it portraiture of melancholic moment.

 

C.     Nazaré, Portugal. A fisherman’s wife was selling sardines on the beach. Her dress and head cover attracted me first. But it was her almost angry demeanor that I wanted to capture. As such, it is portraiture for it portrays a rather typical scene of a fisherman’s wife selling sardines.

However, if I crop the photo shoulder high to show only her face, it becomes more personal, more of whom she was at that moment. Perhaps that continuum between portraiture and portrait is what I find most attractive when framing a shot. Often, I do see that transition before I press on the shutter.

 

  D.  Seoul, Korea. I was waiting for my flight out when I saw two flight attendants on the rolling walkway approaching a sleeping passenger. The background light made it almost for a contre jour shot, but my Pentax 100 captured enough detail for a pleasant softness. I had to burn and dodge a few times in my darkroom to bring out the sleeping woman's figure. 

For me, this is a portraiture of a common "airport moment". Yet, the chiseled profile of the flight attendant and her posture make it undeniably Korean.

This photo has been published in a book.

      E. Prescott, Arizona. A powwow, when American Indian culture is celebrated through dancing and singing. It is also a gathering of various indigenous nations to honor their ancestors and the traditions they inherited from them. I used a Yashica 124 medium format camera sitting about 50 yards away from the dancers. Hence I was able to enlarge a small area of the negative with minimal loss of definition. Even though the shot was overexposed, the final print fulfills the purpose of the shot which was to capture the atmosphere of the dance. Hence it is portraiture of the celebration.

 

      F. Prescott, Arizona. I decided to include this photo and to discuss it last as I think it brings up an interesting question, namely: can there be a distinction between portraiture and portraits if the photos were of animals?

 It may seem like a frivolous question, but many photographers would agree that sometimes wild animals do stop and look at the photographer. Would they be considered “sitters” for a portrait?

 

I took this with a 1961 telephoto lens, the venerable 180 mm Nikkor –Q F2.8, so I was about 30 yards away from mama deer and her “two girls”. They were about to run but mama decided to take one more look at me, and the young ones did the same for a split second. The angle of composure was perfect for that single frame shot I got before they went on their merry way.

I do not know if this is a portrait of deer curious about intruders, or portraiture of wild life. No matter, it is a photo that hangs on my wall.

 

Back to Oscar Wilde -- have I revealed myself through these portraits and portraiture? Did I see that melancholic posture of the woman sitting on the floor because I was melancholic too? Or did the angry look of the fisherman’s wife is something I like to capture in my photography and painting?

The only way to an answer would be to go out and take more photos hoping an explanatory pattern would reveal itself. Till then, I would not consider portraits and portraiture as categorically distinct results of capturing a look or a body language, but interpretations along a continuum.

 

January 9, 2022

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2022