I
was recommended this book in relation to my current photography project based
on representation and portraiture, and (in my short time of experience in the
field) i haven't yet come across a photography book that i was so engrossed by.
So much so, i bought myself a copy because i know that it will be so useful
down the line.
Ewing dots the book with quotes by
photographers, critics, theorists etc that are inspiring and thought provoking,
as much as the work itself sometimes. The book itself promotes the question of
what has a portrait become? How has it changed? And portraiture itself really
has come a long way. From traditional full length, to head to waist length and
just head and shoulders. And now these boundaries have been pushed, they're
being taken even further step by step. People want to make new work that is
contemporary and says something different. And to do this, work has to be made
differently.
For example the work of Eva Lauterlein and
her series 'chimères' (2002)
"Real, yes, but something tells us
that these beings are not fully human. There is a disengaged, robotic quality
to them. Yet Eva Lauterlein's subjects are real, and human - to a degree. Or
rather to several degrees. Their faces and bodies are computer-aided
reconstructions from photographs of real men and women she knows, with as many
as forty different photographs employed. Lauterlein might well have gone on to
create freaks, but in her eerie (re)creations she cleverly skirts the line
between attraction and repulsion." William A. Ewing, FACE 2006
It's clear to see how contemporary
photographers take a new approach to portraiture, new techiniques and
technologies play a part in work such as Lauterlein's. Maybe we can only expect
portraiture to become more ground breaking over the years!
http://www.evalauterlein.net/chimeres/index.html
Ewing, William A, FACE The New Photographic Portrait, Thames & Hudson, London. 2006
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