READING PHOTOGRAPHSAbygail Jones

Chosen application?• I have chosen to use the ‘Portraiture’ application

• This will involve taking pictures of people, focusing on their:

• Facial features• Expressions

• I will be attempting to take the creative approach – using artificial lighting, editing and manipulating the image.

Irving Penn (1917 – 2009)Irving Penn was born in New Jersey, 1917. At the age of 19 he went to the University of Arts in Philadelphia to study: painting, drawing and graphic design, in 1938, once he had finished his studies he moved to New York to work as a freelance designer and illustrator.

He later left New York and his job as an advertising director in 1940 to become a painter however, after 3 years, Penn returned to both New York and a new job as an assistant designer to a Russian Vogue art director, Alexander Liberman. The first task he was assigned to was supervising the covers of Vogue magazine.

October 1943, Irving Penn’s photograph of various accessories such as a glove and a bag appeared on the cover of Vogue magazine. This was the beginning of around 150 Vogue covers featuring Penn’s photographs.

1944 was the start of Penn’s monochrome portraits with the artist, Giorgio de Chirico as his model. Penn was one of the Vogue readers’ favourite artists with his skillset to make an image both calm and classy.

Although he was famous for photographing models and celebrities, he was completely comfortable with photographing people of a lower class.

Penn also experimented in the dark room – for example: he bleached prints to eliminate skin tones. Around the 60’s, he learned how to print pictures on platinum rather than relying on silver to produce a more realistic tone.

October 7th 2009, Irving Penn passed away at the age of 92 in his own home.

For a magazine cover?For a gallery?This was Penn’s job – to take photographs of models/subjects for Vogue’s cover

The woman is the main focus – she is the only thing standing out in this photo

Expressive – smiling slightly – looks calm

Geometric shapes?Circular sunglasses

It’s a portrait – it’s from the shoulders upwards

Posed – the subject has been told how to pose, how to stand – probably told what expression to have

The background isn’t clear – the subject is the focus of this photograph therefore the subject is the main focus

The light seems natural – it looks like you can see windows from the reflection in the subject’s sunglasses – proving this further - there is shadows on the side that isn’t faced towards the window. The light is also soft, not harsh.

This image seems to have been taken in some form of studio – whether that is a home studio or in some form of building.

Monochrome – the picture is in black and white, the contrasts seemed to have been played around with – Irvin was known to do this.

Got a form of dynamic range – it starts from the very lightest (the background or the hat) to the darkest (her hair, her back)

Quite passive – there isn’t a lot of visual information in this photo – it’s pretty much just a portrait, there’s nothing too special about it

The vantage point is from straight on – it’s not low down or high up

The background isn’t prominent – it’s quite passive, there isn’t anything eye catching about it – it’s just a plain white background

There is quite a distinct outline around the subject – whether that is because she is against a white background or because the colour/contrast has been messed with

Contrast is just black and white – although there is quite a high level of grey

Intention? The reason behind most of Irving’s photographs is to use on the cover of Vogue magazine or to be used in Vogue

The dominant area in this photograph is obviously the woman as the image is a portrait

The main object of the photograph is the woman – which is actually Irving’s wife.

Emotions? The subject isn’t really showing any real emotion – she is just looking in to the camera

The photograph is definitely posed – the subject has been told how to pose, what emotions to show – if any

The whole subject is the more clear part of the photo – the background is less in focus than the subject.

The most highlighted is the left side of her face – this could be to diminish any blemishes, could be to have a desired effect – could be to show off how beautiful the subject is in either light?

There is quite a lot of low key here – there is some rather dark shadow on one side of the subjects face, t could be taken in a studio (home studio)

Monochrome has been used here as the photograph is in black and white – the light could either be artificial or it has been edited because one side is significantly brighter than the other.

The space isn’t crowded – it’s quite a passive photograph as there is only really one main focus and that’s the subject

There is a little bit of dynamic range – it goes from bright white to dark grey to black throughout the image.

The background isn’t very prominent in this image, the subject is the focus, she stands out more than the rest of the picture.

There is quite a distinct contor line around the subject – the contrast of the dark clothing and hair against the white background

There is quite a high level of grey in this image – the contrast is high

The photo is taken from right in front of the model – vantage point?

Again, this photo would also be used on a Vogue cover or actually featured in Vogue.

The most prominent feature in this photograph is the subject, the model.

The subject isn’t really showing any emotion – there is nothing particularly expressive about her face apart from the hint of a smile.

The overall style of the photograph is a portrait and because it’s from the shoulders upwards, it proves the point

The photo seems posed, it doesn’t seem candid or observational in any way – the photo is professional and therefore the model has most likely been told how to pose and what expression to use.

The background, her hair and her shoulders are less in focus than her face – just her face and hand seems a lot sharper than the rest of the image

The light used seems to be artificial rather than ambient. The most highlighted area is the hair, face and arm, the rest is either dark grey or black.

I think that this photograph is low key, there is no typical white background, it just looks like someone's home or out in public somewhere? There is a lot of dark shadows and the lighting is soft.There seems to be a repetitive pattern

going on, not just in this particular image but in all of Irving’s photographs. He uses the same techniques, the same poses, the same amount of contrast, the same lighting, constantly in monochrome and so on. They also lack in symmetry.

The photograph is in monochrome – there seems to be a darker use of grey in this image.

This image seems a little crowded in terms of space, even though it’s just the subject in the image, there is hardly any background or room for anything else to really be photographed.

The dynamic range changes quite drastically from a bright white to a pitch black.

Although the image is crowded, it’s still quite passive as the subject is the only thing really being photographed.

The vantage point is somewhere in the middle

The background is hardly noticeable because there is so much focus on the main object

The central focus is the subject of the picture – the only thing that truly stands out.

Annie Leibovitz (1949 – Present)In Westport, Connecticut, 1949, Annie Leibovitz was born. 1971 she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute, she the continued her studies with photographer, Ralph Gibson.

In 1969 Leibovitz took part in an archaeological dig at the site of King Solomon’s temple.

1970 to 1983 she was a freelance photographer and chief photographer for the magazine, Rolling Stone. She then later served as a concert-tour photographer for the magazine, Vanity Fair and later founded the Annie Leibovitz studio in New York.

Leibovitz has a distinct, continuous style to her photographs and that is to ‘emphasize some aspect of each subject’s public persona.’ She uses the whole of the ‘subject’s’ bodies whilst they are in physical motion – she achieves her end products without using too much artificiality.

Leibovitz’s exhibitions have travelled many times throughout the USA that started with the National Portrait Gallery in Washington and toured around the rest of the USA, Europe and Asia.

She has many rewards for her work which include:• American Society of Magazine Photographers (ASMP)• Photographer of the Year Award (1984)• The ASMP Innovation in Photography Award (1987)• The Clio Award and the Campaign of the Decade Award from

Advertising Age Magazine (1987)• Infinity Award for applied Photography from the International Cneter

for photography (1990)

Considering Annie Leibovitz was a photographer for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair magazine, I assume these photos were either for those or a gallery.

The dominant area in this photograph is the face of the subject

The main object of the photo is the subject – the model

There seems to be a hint of foliage in the background of the image?

This particular photograph – or set of, is very expressive, the subject of the images is pulling faces that clash with emotion – shocked, angry, scared?

The image itself is a portrait with only the head, neck and shoulders of the subject showing – along with focusing on her facial expressions

The image definitely seems posed and staged – Lebovitz has asked the subject to pose and express an emotion in such a way and the subject has followed orders

The focus of the image is definitely on the model – the background has been tampered with and blurred to make the subject stand out more.

Considering the image seems to have been taken outside – the light is ambient

The image is low key, it’s outside in a natural environment – natural soft lighting, natural staging etc. The picture is in monochrome, black

and white – this could be because using this colouring, it’s easier to highlight specific areas and erase blemishes or issues – with colour it would take a lot more work?

Apart from the object, there is hardly anything to focus on in this photograph – therefore the image is passive

The background is blurred so that the subject stands out more – it seems as if the background is made up of leaves or an organic product such as tree’s?

The contrast seems to have been messed about with here, there is a high level of grey on the subjects face and facial features where the background is dark, blurred and almost black.

The setting for the photograph seems to be natural – it looks as if it’s outside – could be the work of editing?

The photograph has been taken from directly in front of the subject

The intention for most of Annie Leibovitz’s portraits/photographs is to be displayed in galleries or in magazines for viewing pleasure – this particular image is for Vanity Fair Magazine in which Leibovitz worked.

The dominant theme and subject of this image is that it is a portrait of a celebrity for a magazine or a gallery – this is a consistent style used by Leibovitz. She somehow incorporates a little bit of creativity and unique in every photo to show viewers what the subject is like

The subject of the image has a slight smile and the photograph is therefore expressive

The photograph is definitely posed because it’s been taken in a high key way – in a studio where everything is done professionally.

The whole photograph seems to be in focus, there is nothing out of focus that I can see from looking at the photograph first off – the background may be a little blurred but it’s quite hard to tell

The light in this image seems artificial considering it’s in a studio – again there seems to be a hint of creativity to make the image unique.

This photograph is in colour, the colours are not bright and vivid they are soft and muted – the colour of her lips and hair stand out the most – this could be to emphasise the on-coming change that the public were not expecting that turned Miley Cyrus in to the new images we see of her now

There is quite a lot of space in this image – not only can you see Miley’s head and torso and some extra background.

The background is artificial – it’s definitely in a studio, even though it doesn’t seem blurred or edited, the subject still stands out against the darker background

There may have been some editing with the colour as it’s so pale and almost black and white with a hint of colour – it seems like the levels of grey has been changed and edited.

The photograph has been taken from the front of the subject

The intention of this photograph is the same as the other two – it’s for magazines, newspapers, web pages and galleries and that’s why they are taken in such a unique way – so each picture isn’t just a picture of a face – it’s a picture of the person.

As the image is a portrait – that is what the theme is

Annie Leibovitz usually takes very expressive photos – they don’t have to be expressive using a facial expression, they’re expressive because they all differ from one another in such a way

The photograph is definitely posed and not candid – it looks as if it has been taken in a studio and therefore makes the photograph high key.

The sharper areas in this image is the subject whereas the background seems blurred.

The light in this photograph seems artificial as it seems to be taken in a studio – all the right areas are highlighted although that could just be down to editing.

The repetition of Annie Leibovitz’s photographs is the way that they are taken – I’ve talked before about a certain difference within every portrait and that is what the repetition of every one of Annie’s photographs is. This photograph is in monochrome – it’s

mainly black and white although it looks like the saturation and the contrast levels have been edited slightly – there is a higher level of grey in this image than there has been in the last two.

The image is passive as there isn’t a lot of visual information involved in it other than the subject and the plain white background

The background of this photograph is a studio background and is therefore white and plain – this is to make the subject stand out more against it.

The contrast of this image has been edited and changed – the way her skin seems smoother and the black and white is extremely light gives it away.

The setting is in a studio – it is posed and the background is artificial.