Jennifer's View Blog #1

I got a new camera and flash for this semester, and in demonstrating how they work together, Carl took my picture. Over and over. The angle of the flash created different effects, but in most of the frames, my expression is the same. My expression reads, "I do not like having my picture taken, especially not over and over." It's a fact about me. I just don't like having my picture taken. I know that discomfort and tension comes through in each frame, and that makes the experience worse, and then each frame looks more anxious. I dislike it so much that I can't understand why people sit for portraits. I don't even like looking at portraits that much. In my eyes, most portraits are unnatural, forced, an interruption.  

So, naturally, Carl has made portraiture my focus for this semester.

The first task is defining the difference between portraits and moments. Both succeed with the right lighting and composition, though those elements are more formalized in portraits. Can portraits be pulled out of moments? Yes. Are all moments portraits? No. Neither is just "a picture of something," because portraits and moments seek to visually reveal something more than just a person's existence in a particular space and time. The difference, to me, is a moment is an invitation and a portrait is a confrontation.

I resist formal portraits because they seem too brash, too harsh, too easy to just break down into shapes held together by the frame or the background. I'm more interested in what moments reveal: the small gestures, the casual, the careless, the slight. I like the motion in moments, the idea that the motion continues in an infinite line beyond the frame. I look more closely at portraits captured in moments because they reveal more than just information about that person -- they reveal what that person does in the space around him without stopping him, showing the process and not just the result. I look longer at David Lee's image of Vinny and Denise (from his brother's film "Jungle Fever") in the front seat of a car: the lines and angles created by Vinny's outstretched arm and the car's interior, Denise's sidelong glance, how close they are to each other and how far they are from the blur of people gathered on the other side of the street. In contrast, Lee's formal band portrait from "Mo' Better Blues" shows the band's hierarchy, but the music is paused, and they're musicians without a stage.

These images of my friend Michael are my attempts to shoot a portrait last semester. I was satisfied that they showed the person I recognize, but do they reveal what's important about him? How will I push my attempts at portraiture further?