For the second half of our project we had to go out and photograph strangers. I already had a good idea on the kind of people I wanted to photograph and so I took photographs of Street performers and Stall owners. I found this Project a lot more interesting as it highlights the essence of what Portraiture is really about. Portraiture is meant to tell a sort of story of the subject being photographed. Little details such as the way the subject is dressed, the way they pose, their expression and their willingness to have their photo taken can correlate to things such as where they’re from and the life they live. In the sense of photographing strangers both the photographer and the individual looking at the photo have no idea who the subject is or what their background history is.

My first subject was a young street artist named Florian. Sculpting a Sand Sculpture of a Labrador on the streets of Lincoln at the time (photo above) I tipped him and asked him if i could take his photo. At first he was a little shy but through a little reassurement I was able to take his photo, using a low aperture i got the subject in focus whilst losing the background a little bit. His pose is casual and relaxed which is what i wanted, he looks confident but not too cocky.

 

My second subject was an older gentleman who owned a children’s funhouse, the photo was taken at a fair in the town square in Loughborough. My first thoughts was his pose the expression on his face were different from my first subject. It reminded me of when you got your photo taken back in school, standing straight and with a smile on your face. This gentleman has stronger sense of mannerisms than my first subject probably due to age difference.

For my Portraiture project i had many ideas floating around in my head. For a while I had a leading idea where I was going to photograph my family with one of their childhood toys, the catch was they had to actually dress up like the toy they had in the photograph. Due to time and resources I decided to scrap this idea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

^^ The Toys that would have been used for the project. In order: Carrie Doll, Gonk, Miss Bunny

 

Instead I decided to stick with the theme of “Nostalgia” and try to recreate photos of members of my family from when they were children.

 

Maisie [Sister] – 2003 (aprox) 

Taken when my sister was very young this image captures the innocence children have in their youth. Sat at our family table one lunchtime she feeds banana to a stuffed white monkey, common and relatable a lot of people would have done this when they were young.

Fast forward 10+ years and there are subtle differences. There are subtle differences like the walls which have been painted over, the subject has grown and changed their hair colour. But a few things remain such as the same white stuffed monkey and the same bowls. I couldn’t quite match the lighting seeing as the original photo was shot midday probably during the Spring or Summer time, I was shooting during the evening in the Winter so strong natural light is hard to come by. Instead artificial light was created using a s strong lamp.

 

Jemma [Mother] – 1974

This Photograph of my Mother was taken in Shillington, Bedford which is where she originally lived. My Grandfather (who was a teacher of design at the time) took this photo in their Bungalow. The Dress she is wearing was made by my Grandmother and really captures the style they had in the 70’s, even down the style of hair my mother had and the shoes she’s wearing.

Since I didn’t have access to my grandparents home i had to improvise dramatically. Luckily in our house we have a chair similar to that of the original photo. Again the lighting proved difficult as the original photo had strong natural light so two strong lamps were used either side.

 

Mat [Father] – 1985 (aprox)

Taken at Hind-leys High School in Shepshead my Father would have been around 12 in this school photo, wearing the standard uniform the highschool had at the time.

Using Lightroom I was able to almost replicate the original image fully with the same coloured shirt. Seeing as the original photo was taken at a professional shooting the lighting is entirely artificial which meant I had an easier time trying to match the backdrop and lighting my subject.