Photographic Portraits

Performers’ portraits
were published and distributed as early as the 1830s and 1840s via gazettes and
theatre pamphlets and were a sought-after collectable item in the carte de
viste format from the 1850s. By the late 1860s a separate genre of stage
luminaries had developed. 

Early performers' portraits were often alluring for the viewer.

What dramatic elements have the photographers included to entice the viewer?

The influence of Modernism in the early to mid 20th century inspired a new look for performers’ portraits, with more dynamism and drama.

How does this portrait of Hélène Kirsova differ from that of the earlier performer’s portraits?

How does Dupain add drama to the portrait?

Peter Brew-Bevan’s portrait of prominent actor of the stage and screen, Barry Otto, is inspired by Otto’s favourite Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli.

The subject is covered in Japanese kabuki paint, which is used to produce an approximation of a Botticelli pastel drawing.

The portrait shows Otto’s contrasting sides and the dichotomy between the confident artist and the quizzical, unsure actor.

How do the posture and costuming reflect these two contrasting sides of Otto’s nature?

Photojournalism
moves beyond communicating a news story to evoke emotion and action in the
viewer. The photojournalism format combines narrative with a sense of pace or
urgency. Photojournalism differs from purely documentary, street or celebrity
photography by its compelling emotional effect on the viewer. 

Photographer, Mervyn Bishop, captures Vincent Lingiari, Elder of the Gurindji people of the Northern Territory, receiving the soil of his sacred land from then Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam.

Whitlam negotiated a historic land claim between the traditional owners and the British pastoral company, Vestey Ltd, resulting in the traditional owners acquiring title to 3,250 square kilometres of land.

Read more about the landmark ruling on the
National Archives of Australia website.

Which parts of the composition clearly communicate the emotion of the landmark ruling?

Photographer, David Moore, captures Australian Prime Minister, Harold Holt, listening to a speech given by the President of the United States of America, Lyndon B. Johnson, at the RAAF Fairbairn Airport in Canberra.

President Johnson was the first American President to visit Australia on October 20, 1966. President Johnson’s speech was about an American and Australian shared vision for establishing peace and stability throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Considered great men of change, the two leaders held sincere warmth and high regard for each other. The tone of their friendship is evident in Prime Minister Holt’s remarks on his visit to the White House in Washington in July 1966 where he quipped, “All the way with LBJ.” The slogan was said to have intensified Australia’s opposition to the Vietnam war.

David Moore captures the moment when Australian Prime Minister, Harold Holt, gazes towards the ground with hands behind his back.

Think about the friendship between the two leaders. How do you think Harold Holt’s posture reflects his feelings for the American President?

Australian
modernist photographers, Max Dupain and David Moore, were influenced by Surrealism;
an art movement originating in France in the early 20th century.
Known for their exploration of the unconscious mind, the Surrealists used
stylistic elements such as juxtaposition and abstraction to create dreamlike
imagery.

How has David Moore achieved a surrealist effect?

Moore utilises a reflective surface to create distortion in this image.

What impact does the use of reflection have on how the portrait is read?

Can you find evidence of juxtaposition in Dupain’s photograph of Hera Roberts?

Dupain uses shadow to direct the viewer’s eye away from the gaze and around the image.

What are some words that we can use to describe the image?

Pioneering Modernist photographer, Olive Cotton, photographs herself alongside her partner and fellow-photographer, Max Dupain.

How is this portrait conventional (realistic) and what makes the image unconventional?

Can the silhouette of a person function as a type of portrait?

Thinking about Cotton’s devotion to her photographic practice and her relationship with her fellow photographer, Max Dupain, how does Cotton's silhouette shadow communicate the complexity of their working relationship?

CREATE

The Surrealists of the early 20th century didn’t have access to the tools of today’s digital photography.

Inspired by Surrealist Man Ray and Australian Modernist photographers, Max Dupain and David Moore, experiment with different ways to create dream-like effects using different reflective surfaces.

Look for strong angles and ways to crop your subject to further distort your imagery.
If you have access to a darkroom, you could create a photogram to create a photomontage of your subject or print to transparency to create an interesting layered effect.

Glamour
photography portrays its subjects as idealised and seductive. Lighting effects,
makeup and costume are combined to create a dramatic image for use in magazines
and other forms of advertising. Once known as erotic photography, glamour
photographs of stars and celebrities reflected the taste and styles of a given
period. Popularised through the distribution of French postcards sold on the
streets of Paris, these small erotic images of scantily clad women in alluring
poses (also known as ‘pin-ups’) were particularly popular with World War II
soldiers. In today’s  21st century,
manipulative techniques achieved by computer programs such as Photoshop can add
to the sensuous appeal of glamour portraits. 

What makes Sylvia Breamer’s portrait alluring to the viewer?

Consider the conventions of portraiture, such as the pose, gaze and setting in the ‘glamour photography’ context.

American photographer George Hurrell greatly contributed to the classic glamour ideal.
Widely known as the photographer who invented the Hollywood Glamour Portrait, Hurrell was credited for launching and immortalising the careers of many famous sirens of screen, including Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer.
His portraits also included actors such as Errol Flynn. Hurrell used a classic three-point lighting technique, which involved a key light directed at the front of the figure (strongest light), a fill light to fill in the shadows cast from the main light, and a backlight (positioned behind the figure) to create a strong contour and space between the background and subject.
This three-point lighting technique illuminated the subject in a sophisticated way to create an alluring image.

How has Hurrell positioned the three lights in his portrait of Errol Flynn?

Observe the strong contour outlining the back of Flynn's head.

How is the light positioned to achieve this effect?

Performance artist and costume designer Leigh Bowery used his body as his medium when creating his visionary and at times unsettling performances.

How does David Gwinnut communicate this unsettling side of Bowery's character?

Interdisciplinary contemporary artist, Brook
Andrew, has worked with master printer, Trent Walter, to create a collaged
print of Professor Marcia Langton, anthropologist, geographer and Foundation
Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne.

Langton’s pose refers to the interest in Buddhism that she developed while living in Asia in the early 1970s.

Brook Andrew says that the black and white skulls signal the politics of humankind.

And the radiant diamond-sun alludes to the sitter’s work with Aboriginal communities and mining companies.

Robin Sellick’s portrait of Shane Warne depicts him as an illuminated figure emerging from a background of turf.

Discuss how this reflects Warne’s sporting achievements.

What part of Warne’s character might the red light be alluding to?

The hand-colouring of photographs was popularised in the mid to late 19th century before the widespread introduction of colour photography in the mid 20th Century. Hand-colourists would heighten the realism of an image by overpainting a monochrome photograph with paints or dyes using cotton swabs or fine brushes.

Early daguerreotypes were coloured using a process invented by Swiss painter and print maker Johann Baptist Isenring, who mixed gum Arabic with pigment then applied heat to the surface to fix the colouring.

Advanced methods were introduced through the latter part of the 19th century before Kodak introduced Kodachrome colour film to the world in 1935.

Look at the hand-coloured daguerreotype of Margaret Robertson, c.1855. Do you think the colouring helps the image to appear more realistic?

Contemporary photographer Heidi Smith has used hand-colouring in her portrait of Queensland Rugby League footballing legend, Mal Meninga.

In 1991, the year the portrait was created, Meninga captained Australia to a 2-1 series win over New Zealand and a 2-0 win over Papua New Guinea.

Meninga also broke a long-held point scoring record in the same year and took a pay cut to keep his team together.

How does the yellow-gold colouring reflect Meninga’s choices and achievements?