There’s Less to Portraits Than Meets the Eye, and More

I read Teju Cole’s article on portraits since it is relevant to project 3. A school of thought Cole subscribes to is that when one looks at a portrait, their first instinct is to focus on what the eyes see. The subject’s face, clothing, make-up, emotion etc. However Cole finds beauty in what the eye cannot see in a portrait. When a portrait is done there is a strong element of humanity subtly embedded in the process of making the photo. “A photographic portrait records a human encounter. The photographer’s intent and the sitter’s agreement, and vice versa, are made visible. The portrait also contains the tacit hope that a third party, the viewer, will be able to register the traces of that previous encounter.” This element of a portrait is often overlooked because we’re around other humans all the time, and often times when we take a portrait we do not think much of the encounter other than just a photo op. I think that appreciating the record of a human encounter is something to cherish especially during these isolating times of the pandemic.