Proj 3. Portraiture

APRIL 1, 2020

presenting others using photography


COLOR PORTRAITS

Jenelle – biology major, pastel blues

Ziye – orange-brown


PORTRAITS OF A CLOSE FRIEND

Early Evening {set 1}

Kiss of Summer

Lost in Thought

Dreaming at Dusk

Ready to Leave…

Bonus:

Pre-Social Distancing

Neighborhood {set 2}

Rose Gold

Cotton Candy Skies {set 3}

Pensive

Hope/Flight

Escape

On the Beach {set 4}

Untitled 1

Untitled 2

Untitled 3

Dusk {set 5}

Hold My Gaze

Kerry

Nostalgia {set 6}

Late Night Drive

Blood Orange Night {set 7}

10 p.m.

Focus

Alone

Empress

Bonus:

Sourire


SELF PORTRAITS

Violin

Vibration

Peg Box

f-hole

Despiau

Me

Quarantine

Once upon a Dream

Hidden

Bonus:

Blue (Berries)


Reflection: This project has been my favorite so far in this course. I have been interested in portrait photography for a long time and this was the perfect opportunity to explore it further. My experience overall was both informative and enjoyable. I worked on this project with one of my favorite people (who also happens to be stunning), and she was extremely patient as I directed her and drove her around to shoot in different locations. That being said, there was a lot more to the process of photography than what you can see in the final products. The background of a photo, for example, can change your entire piece. I am more aware of this in my compositions now, and I intend to develop my eye so that I can create complex and visually pleasing shots by incorporating different backgrounds and framing my subject(s) more thoughtfully. Directing can also be a challenge, but it is essential to translating your artistic vision onto the photograph. For these shots, I was guiding my model with directions, such as asking her to lean her head/look one way, stand elsewhere, set her feet in a certain manner, etc. I noticed that the more I joked around, the more comfortable and natural she became in front of the camera. Even so, the photos did not always come out as cleanly or precisely as I intended them to be, so it often took multiple shots to get close to “perfect”. However, there was definitely improvement between photoshoots, and I was happy to see this progress as I continued practicing. The conditions were not always ideal – the beach was very cloudy on the day of set 4, for example – but this helped me understand how to adapt to circumstances and work with what I had. It also encouraged me to experiment more. In the future, I am interested in creating art that is more abstract in its representation of the individual and/or reveals something about him or her through the photograph.