[Leica] Dehumanizing portraits?

[durling at cox.net (Mike Durling)]

I agree with others who say that these are sincere and honest 
portraits.  I don't think at all that the photographer was trying to 
create negative perceptions.

However, when I saw these the other day on Mike Johnston's blog, "The 
Online Photographer", I had and immediate and visceral negative 
reaction.  I think the photographer was trying to employ a particular 
style through the use of the plain background and the ringlight.  While 
this might work for a Vogue model, with this group of middle-aged and 
older folks its extremely unflattering.  What is trying to be art comes 
off as gimmicky artifice.  Maybe its just that I'm not open to new 
visual ideas although it seems like I'm in good company here. 

Mike D

Brian Reid wrote:
> The New York Times magazine just ran a set of portraits of "Obama's 
> People"
>
>  
> http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/magazine/2009-inauguration-gallery/index.html
>  
>
>
> It feels to me as though the photographer went out of his way to make 
> all of his subjects look unnatural and bizarre. They are posed 
> awkwardly, the lighting is very peculiar, the camera angles are 
> unusual, and the subjects were usually photographed off-guard.
>
> What does anybody else think? Was the photographer here trying to 
> create a negative perception of these people?
>
>
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