Photographers

Portraiture

Martin Schoeller • Martin Schoeller is a portraiture photographer who is still alive. He was born in Germany 1968. He is now a

New York based photographer who is best known for his portraits & the way he photographs them. He specifically uses a very close shot of the head, with only the head being in focus (you can see examples of this are on the other slides). The photographs are of incredibly high quality, allowing the viewer to see every inch of the subjects face. The different subjects he has used include celebrities & twins. When he is taking a photograph of a celebrity, you are usually greeted with the same kind of image on the first slide of photographs. But sometimes, the portraits will feature an object of interest e.g. cello tape, which will then be used on the celebrities face. Another example of this is photograph two, where you can see Amy Poehler has a flower crown on.

• Schoeller's work has appeared in magazines such as Vogue, GQ & The New Yorker. He has also released three of his own photography books: Close Up: Portraits 1998-2005, Female Bodybuilders, Fotographie Portfolio 54 & Portraits of Twins. He also shot a very controversial cover which shows a mother breast-feeding for the cover of Time Magazine. He has done a lot of photography in his career.

• This photograph is the typical composition of a portrait that Schoeller shoots 9. The use of a wide-lens camera has allowed the extreme close-up of the face that is only focused on his face. The use of a a shallow depth of field (which is gained when using a high aperture) has made his ears, neck & shoulders out of focus. This is quite clearly a posed photograph, as are most portrait photographs. As the photograph has been taken in a studio additional lighting (high key lighting) would have been used. The use of the lighting gives the photograph a professional & high quality look. It appears that the lighting brightens the look of the photograph, although this could have been done in post-production.

• Although the human face is not symmetrical, you would still say that this photograph is symmetrical as the middle of the photograph is straight down the middle of his nose.

• Although the facial expression is neutral, you still feel a sense of vulnerability between the model and the camera. Showing your face in this way, knowing it is going to show all your flaws is a big thing to do. Other than that, there are no emotions shown.

• This photograph is slightly different from the portraits Schoeller usually shoots. This is a portrait of Amy Poehler. The reason why this portrait is slightly different to others he has shot is because 1) she is not looking directly into the camera & 2) she has a flower crown placed on the top of her head. This stylizes the image in a different way & gives the photograph a personal touch, compared with the first portrait I looked at. Slightly different composition.

• It again includes features I found in the first portrait like the use of a wide-lens camera, high-key lighting & high quality camera gives you a high quality image that still follows the style of other pieces of Schoeller's work. Although there are some similar features, there are some differences I have not mentioned earlier. The photo is just a close-up, compared to the other portrait (this allows the flower crown to fit in. I have also found that none of her face or body is out of focus, which is again different to the other portraits (larger depth of field = smaller aperture).

• Like stated earlier, this photograph is different than the typical portraits Schoeller would take (examples of the typical can be seen above and below). For these reasons, different emotions are shown by the model. Poehler has blonde hair and blue eyes which are stereotypically innocent looking. Adding to this ‘innocent’ look, she is looking away from the camera and has a smile on her face which implies shyness. The flowers also add again to this feeling of extreme femininity. She also is wearing white which suggests purity. If you know Poehler as a comedian, will probably assume this has been done ironically so the photograph is funny. It’s quite personal compared to some of Schoellers other work as personality is also coming through.

• These two photographs are part of Schoellers collection of twin photographs he shot. He would take a portrait of a set of twins & then put the photographs against one another. The style & composition of the photographs are incredibly similar to the shots he took of Jay Z & many other portraits Schoeller has taken. This is particular to his work.

• This photograph is the typical composition of a portrait that Schoeller shoots 9. The use of a wide-lens camera has allowed the extreme close-up of both of their faces that is only focused on their faces. The use of a a shallow depth of field (which is gained when using a high aperture) has made their necks & shoulders out of focus. This is quite clearly a posed photograph, as are most portrait photographs. As the photograph has been taken in a studio additional lighting (high key lighting) would have been used. The use of the lighting gives the photograph a professional & high quality look. It appears that the lighting brightens the look of the photograph, although this could have been done in post-production. Although the human face is not symmetrical, you would still say that this photograph is symmetrical as the middle of the photograph is straight down the middle of each of their noses.

• These two twins share an emotional bond as they look the same. This is the feeling I feel when I look at both of these photographs side by side. You automatically as a viewer want to compare them both next to each other. Twins are usually visually compared throughout their whole lives, so it seems natural to be able to compare them via photograph.

Sir Cecil Beaton• Sir Cecil Beaton was a portraiture, fashion & war photographer. He was born in 14 January 1904 & died

in 18 January 1980. He has had many different models & subjects to take photographs, most notably being the royal family, Audrey Hepburn & Marilyn Monroe. He also shot for magazines such as Vogue (he would later be fired due to some ant-semantic writing in an image he shot for them).

• His style of photography was never very technical. What he would usually do was wait for the perfect time to close the shutter to take the photograph. Due to the times he was taking his photographs, they would always be in black & white. This obviously giving his photography a classic look.

• Like mentioned above, his photographs were never very planned or technical. I like the idea that his work isn't very forced & he will only take the photograph wants he feels like he will capture the perfect image. This technique is very organic, compared to Schoeller's work.

• This first photograph is of the iconic movie star Audrey Hepburn. He has shot her many times. Like mentioned on my earlier slide, Beaton's work is very organic & unplanned, so I would assume that this photograph was not planned & she was wearing that outfit & in that place because that is just where they were at the time.

• Although she is clearly posing for the camera, this is clearly a different kind of posing compared to most portraits. It a very natural.

• As also mentioned on the slide above, he had to shoot in black & white. This has given the photograph a timeless look. Audrey Hepburn is also a timeless movie star, so it seems obvious that he would shoot her.

• The composition of the photograph is minimalist, with Hepburn just posing in front of an off-white wall. This photograph is similar to the first Beaton image as it is centered in the middle. Because he has done this, your eyes automatically go to the centre of the image.

• Hepburn looks very content with life. She isn’t projecting any particular kind of emotion, which could be compared to Schoeller’s work because his subjects usually didn’t project a certain kind of emotion. She is simply posing for the photograph.

• This is one of the famous photographs he took of the royal family (mother and child in this photograph). Similar to the photograph of Audrey Hepburn, it is only slightly posed for, as the background is an off white colour like the Audrey Hepburn.

• I like this photo as it does not seem as posed as other royal family photographs. It seems very natural & like it is an every day photograph. The way she & the baby are not looking at the camera also add to this. Overall, this makes a very unique portrait. This is typical of Beaton's style.

• Beaton’s style is different to Schoeller’s style as his photographs are not taken in a studio & are not posed. Due to the the time difference, Beaton’s photographs are taken in black and white & are lacking a certain high quality.

• This photograph is very peaceful as the baby is is the mothers arms not crying. One way I would describe this photograph is minimalist. There is nothing featured apart from the mother and child. I feel like the same emotions are portrayed from this photograph as the Hepburn portrait. This tells me that Beaton tries to portray certain kinds of emotions in his work, like peacefulness.

• In this photograph you can see Marilyn Monroe posing for a portrait for him. Again you can see an occurrence of themes & conventions that Beaton puts into his photographs.

• This is a very candid photograph (I assume candid) as she is topless & is not up against a white wall/studio setting. Due to the time the photograph was taken in, it is black & white. The framing of this photographs suggests Beaton used the rule of thirds to take this photograph, as her body is not centered. This makes the image more visually stimulating & also look more candid.

• Overall, I find that I could take inspiration from both artists to create a piece of work. The way Beaton can take photographs anywhere & make them look like they are posed. I will take inspiration as I shooting in a house & not in a studio. The way Schoeller creates image with high quality images with vibrant colours. I want to incorporate my inspiration from both these photographers to merge with my own ideas to create my own photographs.

• This photograph portrays different emotions to me, compared to the other two Beaton portraits I looked at. This one appears to be more candid and almost cheeky. It’s like Marilyn was playing up to the cameras when Beaton decided to take the photograph. She appears to be happy so you get the feeling of happiness from the photograph.

Comparison There are some similarities and differences between both photographers. 1. They both photograph people, making them both portraiture artists. I mention this because you can tell

just from these two artists that within the genre, there are many different techniques and subjects that can be accessed. For example Martin Schoeller’s primarily features a close up shot of an individuals face and has a strict way of shooting his portraits, Sir Cecil Beaton’s work is, although has a particular style, isn’t as strict because he photographs his subject in a candid way (you can see this from the three photographs I looked at earlier). Within the similarity of them both being portraiture photographers, you can find differences between them both.

2. Another difference is due to the eras they were both shot in. Sir Cecil Beaton’s work spanned from 1926 to 1979, whereas Martin Schoeller has been active since 1996 and is still active. Due to the different eras, they had/have access different types of equipment. Beaton used large format cameras and smaller Rolleiflex cameras during his career. It has also been said that he wasn’t a technically skilled photographer. The cameras he did use aren't a match compared to what Schoeller uses. He uses a Mamiya RZ6 camera with 140mm f/4.5 macro lens which uses Kodak Portra film. He uses lighting also, both strobe & florescent lighting. That kind of equipment wasn’t available to Beaton in his era. The technical quality is much higher in Schoeller’s work, you can tell this from his photographs as they are in colour and you can see see when you look at them that there are many more pixels within the picture which allows a higher quality photograph.

3. Linking to the last point I made, you can see that the technical differences also changed the visual and aesthetically. Beaton’s work was shot in black & white which typically connotes nostalgia, which is appropriate as the photographs feature people from the past (Marilyn Monroe & Audrey Hepburn). Although he didn’t have a choice (or a cheap choice) to shoot in black & white, it is a key component to his work. The same can be said about Schoeller’s work as his high contrast colour images are seen as modern & contemporary, which is an appropriate observation as it is true.

4. Something similar about both artists is that they have both shot important celebrities and figures from their era. For example Schoeller has taken a portrait of the current president of the united states Barack Obama, whilst Beaton had taken a lot of photographs of the Queen & the royal family. I think this is a significant point to make as it shows a timescale of who was important at these times.