What I do in my Black and White Portrait work is not "Glamour Shots." It is down to the skin reality and sometimes it's hard to handle the truth. These old friends reluctantly subjected themselves to that possibility. Without getting too wordy, I will say, I love this work, it's what keeps me in the game. They can sometime be striking or even riveting. The bigger I print them the better they get.
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5 comments:
Fabulous, Jerry.
Might I be so bold as to direct you to an image; Margaret Bourke-Whites' "Woman, Locket, Georgia, 1936" In her photograph, she captures the soulfulness of the eyes, yet does not crop the top of the head. Cropping parts of the anatomy may be an aesthetic that I will never get, but it always forces me to ask "WHY???!!!" It reads commercialism. It doesn't really get at the "truth" of the subject. It places a myopic veil over the truth.
Now gosh darn it Lisa, you went and made me think about this. You are certainly not the first to point this out and probably won't be the last. It may alarm you to know that some of my favorite portraits actually have the subject with their eyes closed. I will confess that sometime the subject matter in it's entirety is not all that compelling and unlike MBW, I only have a relatively few moments to capture that person's soul. Perhaps I could refer you back to her quote, "I feel that utter truth is essential," Bourke-White said of her work, "and to get that truth may take a lot of searching and long hours." I don't have that luxury, though I truly do try to find the truth in my subject's spirit and in a very short period of time.
Further, I never try to intentionally emulate other's work. What I do pleases me and right now, that is very important.
Thank you for your comment and don't ever make me think again. It hurts.
I love your blog jerry, I read everything. It's swell.
Head cropping is perfectly acceptable. Since I said so- so be it! I wish I felt I had enough of anything interesting to write.
Thank you Linda. You sound like a very intelligent and insightful person. Maybe the next time if you call ahead I can coach you a bit on what more to say. ;>)
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