[Leica] Dehumanizing portraits?

[afirkin at afirkin.com (Alastair Firkin)]

The same comment was made when Bush came into power as far as I remember. 
Someone on this list felt the photographer "had it in" for the sitters. I 
don't think there is "greatness" in this series, but I don't see anything 
sinister. Plain white background does lend to a slightly "harsh" and "empty" 
atmosphere, and not everyone photographed "well".

Cheers

--- reid@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us wrote:

From: Brian Reid <reid@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
To: LUG@leica-users.org
Cc:
Subject: [Leica] Dehumanizing portraits?
Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 11:56:46 -0800

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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