Thursday, February 17, 2011

Studio Portrait

Here are a couple portraits of classmate Dak Dillon from the studio:


Dak Dillon’s demanding schedule revolves around photography. The 21-year-old photographs sports, portraits, events and more for clientele in the central Missouri area while studying photojournalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
 



Dak Dillon almost always keeps his camera on him. Having shot private photography for over four years and studied photojournalism at the University of Missouri for the past three, Dillon’s time and energy is devoted to photography.

Lighting Diagram:



Thursday, February 10, 2011

Inspirational Portrait (additional link)

For some reason that portrait photo isn't showing up on my computer any more. If it's not working, here's a link to a google image:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.janicedugas.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/andy-warhol.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.janicedugas.com/top-10-paid-prices-for-photographs/&usg=__9Pw2tVQwx0rwejOgZWMG3Ml3lwg=&h=255&w=250&sz=17&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=FQO1ZcmZZcYNOM:&tbnh=169&tbnw=166&ei=0kFUTbOxOoudgQeg2_38CA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drobert%2Bmapplethorpe%2Bandy%2Bwarhol%2B1987%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1217%26bih%3D656%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=561&vpy=98&dur=379&hovh=173&hovw=170&tx=115&ty=80&oei=0kFUTbOxOoudgQeg2_38CA&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0

Inspirational Portrait

andy-warhol.jpg
Photograph by Robert Mapplethorpe

Robert Mapplethorpe's 1987 portrait of Andy Warhol is, to me, a perfect example of a portrait revealing the character of the subject while retaining the image quality required of any great photograph. Using geometry to his advantage, Mapplethorpe centers Warhol's head in front of a light circle on a dark backdrop, moving the viewer's eyes immediately to Warhol's face. The artist's eyes show sadness, and combined with his expression gives the viewer the sense that Warhol was troubled. This lines up with Warhol's shy yet sincere and introspective personality, and becomes especially powerful when considering the portrait was made shortly before his untimely death. Between the use of the geometrical background and capturing such a sincere, emotional expression, Mapplethorpe was able to turn his portrait into as artistic a statement as the works of Warhol himself, simplistic but powerful, capturing a mood the artist never managed in a number self-portraits.