Our third brief was to create three different portraits: one self portrait; one portrait of a family member or friend; and one portrait of a stranger. One simple google search lead me to find a multitude of photographers famous for their portraits, meaning my choice in research was very broad. Focusing on both artists mentioned in lectures and interesting concepts I found online, I set to looking for different ways to complete this brief.
Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir
“Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir is an Icelandic photographer who was named the “Web’s Top Photographer” by the Wall Street Journal on July 29, 2006. She began her career by posting her photo’s on the online image sharing site Flickr, and the popularity of her photography lead to an opportunity to create and star in a Toyota advertising campaign. Although her images are not that popular in the public eye, her website consists of portraits of herself, people, and other categories include scenery, dolls, film and animals.”
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Looking through her categories, I begun in her self portrait section, filtering through and choosing the photos I found the most interesting. There was no coloration between each self portrait, which gave me a chance to explore different ideas before pinning my idea on one. Her self portraits didn’t focus so much on herself, but where she was, and what she was doing. Unique locations and props made her gallery stand out, and the cleanliness of indoor photography brought colour and focus to the subject, something I hope will become apparent in my work.
The category ‘people’ provided me with many more ideas for my portraits. The locations and props would make it relevant to my family member/friend brief, or even to my self portrait. Rebekka focuses on the innocence of the relatable. She takes women and children, two things she is/has been, and puts them in unfamiliar locations, making the viewer instantly compare their surroundings to the subject. The above image of a woman in a swimming pool both allows the audience to see where the lady is, but still be drawn to her face. The image of a child in the middle of a field with his teddy bear makes us see the unrealistic situation, but still avert our eyes to the child’s sad and worried expression. Placing everyday people in places we don’t always imagine them to be in can take attention away from the subject, but Rebecca cleverly made the location strange and also added realism. None of the locations or props her subjects are with would shock her audience into missing the person in the image.
Reference:
Guðleifsdóttir, R. (2011) Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir. Iceland. Available from http://http://www.rebekkagudleifs.com [accessed 13 April 2016]