Richard Avedon -My Mentor

“A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion. There is no such thing as inaccuracy in a photograph. All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.” –Richard Avedon

Photography is the process of capturing a still moment in time. When photographing portraits it is hard to capture a subject’s true essence. However, Richard Avedon had the special talent of achieving this, which is why he is my photography role model. Richard Avedon had the ability to present public figures, who were seen as reserved or untouchable, in their most personal ways. Avedon’s portraits are viewed as intimate, sophisticated, and unique.

Richard Avedon was born in New York on May 15^th, 1923. He was the first staffed photographer for The New Yorker. Studio portraits interested Avedon the most, and he continued in the fashion business. He was seen as one of the most important and prolific photographers of the twentieth century. As well as the most important fashion photographer of all time according to the eyes of many photography and fashion specialists. Richard Avedon was capable of almost constant stylistic reinvention, as he had maintained a unique style of his own throughout his career.

In Richard Avedon’s photographs he liked to portray emotion, and when photographing his subjects he felt that his pictures represent himself more than the model. Avedon would manipulate reactions from his portrait subjects by guiding them into uncomfortable situations, or by asking them discering questions. Through these means he would produce images revealing aspects of his subject's character and personality that were not ever captured by others. For example, The Duke and Duchess of Windsor. This is definitely one of my favourites by Richard Avedon due to the story behind the emotion. Avedon knew that his subjects were dog lovers, so he told them a story about running over a dog on his way to work that day. As soon as they heard that, Avedon snapped his picture, and captures true emotion.

Avedon was always interested in how portraits could capture the personality and soul of its subject. As his reputation as a photographer became widely known as he brought in many famous faces. Another one of my favourites is of Marilyn Monroe. “There was no such person as Marilyn Monroe …She was invented, like an author creates a character.” Said Avedon. “For hours she danced and sang and flirted and did this thing that’s—she did Marilyn Monroe, then there was the inevitable drop … she sat in the corner like a child, with everything gone. I wouldn’t photograph her without her knowledge of it. And as I came with the camera, I saw that she was not saying no.” This interested me that Avedon was able to extract such emotion unlike any other photographer.

I also love the photograph of Andy Warhol and his scars. By lifting up his shirt and showing his surgery wounds it adds emtoion and relatablilty.  By showing Andy Warhol's imperfections and flaws it breaks down the barrier that viewers may feel when seeing a picture of someone so famous. In this photograph the expression captured on the subject's face is surprised, as if he was caught off guard. I like the mystery and confusion this picture portrays.

To replicate Richard Avedon's photography intent, I wanted to capture intensity and emotion in my picture. My subject, Laura, is into acting so I decided to choose her as my subject. I set up the studio with 1:2 lighting to capture the most complimenting light. I took many shots of her while talking and having a conversation (like Avedon woiuld do), but nothing turned out right. Instead, I told Laura to think... She started to cry. The expressions I caught when this happened was amazing! (She said it was mainly because of the bright studio lighting). Since Avedon's portraits are all black and white, I wanted to do that as well. However, when transforming the original, it lost all its mood and Laura's tears because invisible. To change this, I just lowered the photo's saturation and played around with the light balance. I really love how this photo turned out!

Eucalyptus Oil Transfer

For my third altnative process I wasn't sure what to do. I spent one class in the dark room playing with rayographs and solarizarion. I ended up deciding to create a eucalyptus oil transfer. It smelled really good! When transferring words, they print backwards, so using photoshop I reversed the letters and the word "forever" so when it printed, it was the right way. I decided on the theme love and forever due to the time of year. Since its only 5 days until Christmas I wanted to portray my family, and how we feel during the holidays! In this composition, there were three individual picture put together: the hand, the heart, and the word forever. I love this finished picture, as it is meaningful to me.

Gel Medium Transfer

For my second alternative process, I wanted to make a gel medium transfer. Since Ms. Zanini said you can make it into something I got really interested in this process. I decided to make a wallet. A wallet is something you use bascially everyday, so I wanted it to show something I love and something that I would actually want to carry daily. I decided on transfering four cameras because I love photography, and carry my camera almost everywhere with me. Two of the cameras are shown on the outside and the other two are shown on the inside. Using water colour paints, I painted to cameras blue and two cameras pink (my favourite colours)!

Silk Screening

For my first alternative process I chose to make a silk screen. I knew the perfect picture to take once I decided on this process. I wanted to make the shirt look somewhat like Pop Art by adding the four different coloured sunglasses (blue, pink, green, and purple), but the same black dog for each print. The original picture on my dog, Duke, actually had sunglasses on him. This made it easier for me to make the two-registration picture in photoshop. This silk screen is portraying my dog, and how much he means to me! It represents him perfectly (clearly he's super easy-going)! I also made an identical shirt for my brother for Christmas because he was jelous of mine.

Breaking the Rules

This photograph was taken as a decisive moment. Cora, the model, was not very impressed. This photograph breaks the rules of line and merger. The line of her leg contradicts the parrallel lines on the floor, however, her leg leads your eyes back to her face (which is the most important part of this picture... it makes me laugh). Also, The people in the background of the picture look almost as if they're coming from her head, hence the merger. This also adds more curiosity to the picture, and makes the viewers more interested.

This photograph was of my dog, Ray. This picture took me quite a while to take because Ray is a puppy and wouldn't cooperate very well. This picture breaks the rules of line and rule of thirds. Ray's paws are slightly off center in this picture, which breaks the rule of line. It adds more to the picture because its not perfectly aligned. Also, rule of thirds was broken because Ray is set in the middle of the picture. Personally, I think this works better with this picture, because the legs are slightly angled, so they lead right to the middle of the picture... Right back to Ray!

This is a photograph of shoes. I love shoes! I took this picture not really focusing on "breaking the rules". This photo breaks the rules of line, merger, and view point. The lines of the laces and the lines of the seems on the shoes all face different directions. This is acceptable here because the main focus in the picture is the socks and the top of the shoes, the lines just add detail. There is a merger in the picture on the left side, where there was a backpack, it almost looks like a shadow. This adds contrast to the main focus in the picture. Also, the vantage point in this picture was slightly angled and low down. This creates a different perspective to think about when looking at the photograph.

Mixed Lighting

When trying to capture mixed lighting, I was stuck! Mixed lighting is defined as multiple illuminants with different colour/temperatures that can further complicate performing a white balance. After reading this, the colour wheel inspired me to try and display the mixing of light and colours together. For this photograph, I placed a red light and a blue light on either side of Stephanie. This forced the two lights to mix and create purple light in the middle. My favourite part about this picture is Stephanie's shadow. I thought it was so cool how her shadow is red, even though the blue light was pointing in that direction. Overall, mixed lighting was not as hard as I had put it out to be, and my photo was successful!

Painting with Light

Painting with light was such a fun assignment! I thought it was going to be impossible, but it was actually quite easy. In this photograph, I got Stephanie to pose as if she were holding someone's hand. With the light from my Ipod, I traced someone else holding hers. I was having a bit of difficulty lighting Stephanie up enough as the picture was taken in the darkroom. So, using her Ipod, we taped it to the wall in front of her in order to create enough light to see her as well. This effect created a better outcome, as Steph is lit up the same colour as the person I traced with the light. In this painting, I was trying to create an innocence to Stephanie. I tried out many different pictures, but this was definitely my favourite!