Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/01/18

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Subject: [Leica] Dehumanizing portraits?
From: images at comporium.net (Tina Manley)
Date: Sun Jan 18 12:04:50 2009
References: <5B13112AD743CA6EF73CB6B2@hindolveston.reid.org>

At 02:56 PM 1/18/2009, you 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?

They are all over processed and the people look uncomfortable and 
awkward.  The shadow around them looks unnatural.  I think the over 
processed look is the "fashion" in portrait photography but these are 
particularly bad examples.  I wouldn't want my portrait up there if I 
were any of these people.

Tina


Tina Manley
www.tinamanley.com 


In reply to: Message from reid at mejac.palo-alto.ca.us (Brian Reid) ([Leica] Dehumanizing portraits?)