Of the many creative photographic genres, it is perhaps portrait photography where two camps—the representative and the artistic—can be most clearly observed. Whilst the former requires context through captions and backstory to elevate it, in the later, the absence of such requires creative aptitude. Attempting to merge both camps in one photograph can often diminish its effectiveness.
Australian YouTuber Currently Hannah recently teamed up with her friend Just Jess to create a brutally honest, hilarious video that answers the question: what would travel videos look like if influencers were honest?
Every photographer should photograph a cancer patient at some point in his/her life. It teaches you how little of a person you are and how you’re but one character in the story of life. That’s what I learned at least when I had the privilege of photographing the double mastectomy of my friend, Diana Sheldon, 38, last fall.
As photographers, writers, illustrators, actors, musicians... As creatives, we create the world that we exist in, we create the world that the rest of the world sees.
This is a gift, it is our gift and it is the soul of the saying that we “are gifted.” While many are brought up to view doctors and lawyers as having greater intellectual prowess, the truth of the matter is that it takes a VERY strong mind to visualize and then create our art.
But what happens when that mind turns against us?
Author’s note: The following video does contain some explicit language and one instance of nudity at 3 minutes. Proceed with caution, especially if you’re at work.
Bruce Gilden -- a Brooklyn-born photographer who has won numerous awards and is now part of the Guggenheim Fellowship thanks to his street photography work -- recently sat down with VICE to do a little art critique. Although 'critique' might be a nice way of putting it.
If you browse around online, even if you stay away from the magazine covers with their models liquified into long-legged oblivion, you will be hard-pressed to find professional portraits of women that are as honest and raw as the ones featured on RAW Beauty Talks.
That's because this organization, dedicated to empowering women through portrait photography and an honest conversation about beauty, doesn't just do away with photo manipulation in its portraits... it does away with anything meant to enhance or cover up the way the models actually look.
Actress Jennifer Lawrence may be fine with excessive Photoshopping, but advertising regulatory authorities in the United States aren't of the same opinion. We reported back in 2011 that the UK had banned certain advertisements for excessive Photoshop work, and that the US was moving in the same direction.
Photographer Lee Jeffries worked as a sports photographer before having a chance encounter one day with a young homeless girl on a London street. After stealthily photographing the girl huddled in her sleeping bag, Jeffries decided to approach and talk with her rather than disappear with the photograph. That day changed his perception about the homeless, and he then decided to make them the subject of his photography. Jeffries makes portraits of homeless people he meets in Europe and in the US, and makes it a point to get to know them before asking to create the portraits. His photographs are gritty, honest, and haunting.
If families always listened when photographers say, “look natural”, this is what nearly every Christmas card would look like.