Portrait Photographers, Portrait Painting
Nikolaus Maack
there are any others out there, like me, who might like to trade tips.
A few photographers have caught my eye, and I've really enjoyed using
their works as a basis for some of my paintings.
Yosuf Karsh is an amazing photographer. His celebrity portraits --
Oppenheimer, Einstein, Hemingway, Winston Churchill, and many others
-- are perfect for the sort of photographs I want. Head on shots,
somewhat formal, very clear cut, harsh focus, black and white.
August Sander, a German photographer, utterly blows me away. He took
hundreds of portrait photographs of ordinary German citizens. These
photos are somehow so rigid, artificial, and yet so very revealing.
People stand in their work clothes in that stiff-backed German way,
and allow themselves to be caught on film, warts and all.
I was wondering if anyone would care to recommend other photographers
I could base my portraits on? I especially love plain, ordinary faces
caught staring straight ahead.
Some other sources I work from include the local newspapers,
advertisements and catalogues, family photo albums, and taking
pictures of people on the street -- first asking their permission --
and working from these photographs. It's surprising how cooperative
strangers will be if you explain to them that you're an artist.
"Oh, okay, he wants my picture because he's an artist. That makes
sense."
Although everyone seems to think they're an expert on the legalities
of this practice. A librarian I asked for a photo of told me that I
absolutely MUST ask permission from EVERYONE that I photograph, and to
be especially sure not to get anyone in the background of the photo,
as I would require their permission as well.
This strikes me as utter hogwash. My understanding is that if someone
is in a public place -- say, the street -- their image is public
property. Is this not the case?
But just to be polite, I did ask permission to take pictures, and then
my girlfriend, who wanted me to do all the talking, actually snapped
the photo. Out of the dozen or so people my girlfriend and I
approached on the street, only four refused to have their picture
taken. Most people seemed somewhat proud at being asked. Which is
funny, because I tended to pick wrinkled old men, one of my favorite
subject matters.
One man sitting on a park bench stood up, put a big smile on his face,
posing formally for us, not even asking WHY we wanted his picture.
Then again, he didn't speak English.
Some of the men did say things like, "You want a picture of an old
fart like me? Okay, what the hell."
I've also been interested in some of the old style portrait
photography I've seen in antique shops. Unfortunately, these pictures
usually tend to be out of my price range. Which is annoying, because
they're exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for. I came across a
box of these sorts of pictures in one shop -- men, women, and entire
families sitting stiff backed, dressed formally, posed like
mannequins. I wanted to buy the entire box, but the store was asking
ten dollars for the small photographs, twenty for the larger ones.
Sigh. They were absolutely perfect. Oh well.
I suppose I could find plenty of portrait style photographs on line.
Come to think of it, my girlfriend has a very nice printer. Anyone
know of any urls where I might locate some nice material to work from?
I'd love to hear from other people suffering from the same dementia
that I am. That is, assuming there are other people like me out
there.
Nik
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The Nik Maack Art Gallery
http://www.chat.carleton.ca/~mrtribe
Outsider art for outsiders.
Norman Strand~
the photographs from the farm security administration Walker Evens and Dorthea
Lange did some nice wirk for them and the photographs might be in the public
domain. Yosuf Karsh portraits are copyrighted so do not copy them. There
is a sort of rule that you can use photos as reference material but you cannot
copy them. My feel for it, is if the average person looks at the original
and the "copy" and says hungh, it don't look like a copy what are you taking
about" then you are OK. If it looks like a copy then it is a copy. Copyright
laws are very harsh.
Norman Strand
--
Intel, Corp.
5000 W. Chandler Blvd.
Chandler, AZ 85226