portraitist

Interview with Bear Kirkpatrick, Creator of the Photo Series ‘Wallportraits’

Bear Kirkpatrick lives and works in Portsmouth, NH. You can visit his website here

PetaPixel: First Bear, tell us about what spurred your initial interest in photography?

Bear Kirkpatrick: Two things happened, and they never fully blended. My father had a 35mm film camera when I was a boy. One day he, my younger brother, our two black dogs and I went into the woods beside our house -- it was winter, we had coats on -- and my father took pictures.

When he developed the film and showed us the beautiful black and white prints, it was like the top of my head came off -- I didn't understand right away, but certainly felt right away the elevating nature that photographs had over life. Or had to life. Everything was better.

Spend Two Hours Learning from Portrait Master Greg Heisler

Earlier this week, when stumbled across this two-hour presentation by iconic portrait photographer Greg Heisler, it took all the will power we had not to share it with you right away. In our world, being the "first" to report on a story is often very important, and it's an impulse we often have to resist because we're intent on getting the story right.

In this case, however, it had nothing to do with getting the story right and everything to do with sharing it at a time when we felt the majority of our readers would have enough time to watch the video from start to finish. Two hours is a long time to listen to one photographer speak, but in the case of Gregory Heisler, we think you'll find it's not nearly long enough.

Exploring the Art of Portrait Photography and the Role of the Portrait Today

Capturing our likeness has been a pursuit of the human race for thousands of years. From paintings of gods in Egypt and Greece, to portrait paintings of royalty, to the unabashedly narcissistic selfie of today.

In this week's episode of PBS Arts' webseries Off Book the topic of the day is portraiture, a subject each of the four interviewees takes on from their own unique angle.

Photographer Gets a Second Chance at Life, Embarks on a 100 Portrait Journey

In 2011, photographer Giles Duley stepped on a land mine while working in Afghanistan. Originally a celebrity portrait photographer who had been turned off to celebrity culture by the people he was photographing, he had always hoped to return to portraiture.

That's why, during his 46-day fight for his life in intensive care, it was to portraiture that his mind turned, and a project took shape.

Portraitist Platon on Photographing Some of the World’s Most Powerful People

Platon (short for Platon Antoniu) is a Greek-English portrait photographer who has had the privilege of photographing some of the world's most powerful people. From literal world leaders, to cultural world leaders, to regular people who are changing the world one day at a time, his photography has earned him many well-deserved awards and magazine covers.

Last week, he spoke to the folks at the Wired Business Conference about his work, and Wired was kind enough to share the video online.