Seminar Task: The Portrait issue

The first picture is by Finlay MacKay, its a picture of Paralympics champion David Weir. It is from a series that MacKay took of athletes at an important time of their training, the people who support them and also the people who make it possible for them to compete.

In this picture we can see Weir straining to go faster, his position is almost like the one of his wheelchair, bent forward like the wheel in the front with his arms thrown backwards as he just finished another push. It's a simple picture in he aspect that there is only one focus point: Weir, but the depth of field allows us to see the long road behind him which he most probably just came from. The picture is sightly over saturated and allows us to see more colours and makes the picture more interesting. The tree and Weir gives a sense of scale and you can tell this is a long and harsh training that Weir does probably everyday. It's a peaceful picture, there is nothing disturbing Weir and the land is green behind him, its a nice and typical view but an unusual place to train.

Finlay MacKay "Changing the Pace, David Weir"

Toby Glanville "Actual Life"

This picture is by Toby Glanville, from a book set in Kent called "actual life". This series of pictures is simple a series of recorded moments in the daily lives of the people he used for his pictures.

In this case we have a teacher posing in front of her board. She is dressed in dull clothes and appears to still be using a blackboard. her body language, especially her hands, suggest she is embarrassed and doesn't quite know what is going on, so she takes a natural portrait pose and a camera smile. The picture itself is dull, it's a typical portrait with the subject taking a typical portrait pose. The fact that it is under saturated makes us think that Glanville wanted the picture to come out "boring", there is nothing special about this women or her work. It reflects the title perfectly, this is actual life, the boring everyday life moments we all have to go through.

Ulrich Glanville "Freishneider"

This Last picture is by Ulrich Gebert entitled "Freishneider". It is a series of photographs about a man who cuts hedges for a living. The equipment makes us think that it is a dangerous job, especially he red helmet. The over saturated colours add to that thought. The series is about the man fighting this idea of the untamed vegetation, because as humans we must control it, and make it conform to what we believe is how it should look. It's man versus nature idea, the other pictures show the man holding blades to cut the hedges making look like a war or murder scene, the man is the murderer and the hedge is its victim. The extremely serious look on the man's face really makes it look like this is a life an death matter, it resembles the look on actors in action movies as they are about to make a drastic move.

All three pictures re similar in the fact that they depict the everyday lives of different members of society with different jobs, but the way the artist decides to portrait them all make them extremely different, the first picture shows the strain of an athlete in his training as it is, the second one portrays the life of a women as dull and monotone, as the last picture gives a sense of danger and extremely drastic measure.