CVanAltena+Portrait

They use different point of views, lighting, unique subjects, attempt to convey a certain message and most of all the artists have a specific style of photography that they demonstrate in their collection of art. Some artists focus only on the person in the photograph, while others choose to focus on the entire scene as a whole, and the person in the photo becomes a part of the scene behind them.
 * A: How do these artists make their portraits become true works of art, not just snapshots?**

**A: What lighting and compositional techniques are evident in the photographer's work?** When I was looking at the photographs from the photographers I saw a mix of artificial light and natural light that was used. Robert Bergman used a lot of natural light in his more natural pictures, that were taken outside. Artificial light was used a lot, because photographers, like Bernice Abbott, used their studios to take photographs and had scenes behind the subjects, or just used a blank background to draw all attention to the person. As for compositional techniques, I saw a lot of leading lines in the photographs. For example I saw a photograph with trees behind the person, and those acted as leading lines to draw your eye around the paper.

**A: How might their artwork influence your own?** Their use of different lighting techniques, subjects and style can influence my artwork by exposing me to all the different things and factors that I can control. It can help me create a portrait with a combination of all the things that other artists use to make their artwork different.

**?: Questions you have as you read, something you don't understand &** **V: Vocabulary you should know** The only questions I had was just about the lighting and the different lighting techniques, but I just reviewed the lighting section on the Wiki and that helped me remember the stuff I forgot. For vocab I would just say that you should know all the different kinds of lighting, and the compositional techniques.

**C: Connections to your own work and your own experiences. What does it remind you of?** The use of black and white reminds me of my personal style, because I love black and white photos, whether they be portraits of people or nature scenes that have been transformed to black and white. I also like portraits that contain a nature scene in the background, and a lot of the artists use that in their photographs.


 * 3 Portraits**

1. [] "Cocteau’s Hands," Paris, 1927 by Bernice Abbott

I like this photograph because of the artists use of leading lines with the fingers and veins on the hands. I also think the point of view is very unique, because it is only focussing on the hands around the hat, and although it's a basic set up, it is very interesting to look at. The lighting in this photograph is artificial, because there seems to be a spotlight focussing on the hands, and I like that because it's cool how you only see the hands and whatever they're touching, which is the hat, and it leaves the rest a mystery.

2. [] "Christie Brinkley" by Timothy White

This photograph is very interesting because of the trees in the background, and how the photographer didn't crop them short to focus on the person. When the photographer let the trees remain tall in the image, they created leading lines to let the viewers eye move all across the picture and not just remain fixed on the person. I also like their use of natural light and a natural scene, because they got a unique lighting effect with shadows, and ll the brush on the ground. Additionally when I was looking through Timothy White's photographs I noticed that he photographed celebrities, and I thought that was really cool to look at and see the celebrities in different ways.

3. [] "Marilyn Monroe" by Eve Arnold

I really like this photograph because it is focussed on the subject, and filled the frame very well. The fact that the photographer used artificial studio lights, and put the spotlights on the woman in the picture created a cool effect, leaving the viewer to focus and look at the subject and not lose their attention to anything else. The use of black and white works very well with the subject because of her fair hair that pops against the black background. I love the set up of this photograph.