Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Portrait Painting in Light

What makes for a Truly Great Portrait?

I have looked at so many portraits in the last two weeks that I am now asking myself this very important question.

I like faces in repose.

Perhaps really expert portrait photographers look for a little glint of inner magic?

I have been asked to remove one of my photos from Flickr.
The person whose portrait is now gracing my archives there does not like what they see.
I think it's a very lovely shot, and tells a lot about the character involved.

Will I remove it? If I get up enough energy... perhaps...

At the Irish Blog Awards 2008 I had a very interesting conversation with an academic
who studies social change, technology and why people behave the way they do.
One insight shared is that nowadays there is so much paranoia at conferences that some delegates wear badges which inform the onlooker:

NO PHOTOS ALLOWED

I hope never to reach this state of distrust of "the other" and of "the camera".

Personally I love having my photo taken and am a bit miffed to find that, as far as surfing the net since the Awards shows up, I was not in anybody's line of sight.

As the poem my Godmother used recite goes:

"I am not old, I am not plain, nor awkward in my gait..."

Better luck next year, I suppose...

1 comment:

David T. Macknet said...

I wonder: if I were to wear a badge everywhere saying, 'no photos', would that be legally binding? To the surveillance cameras, even? Hmmm!

Generally speaking, if you've taken the picture, you own the content ... and, so long as you're not using it in a slanderous fashion, you don't have to comply with a take-down notice. Nobody owns their own image, particularly if they're in a public venue, despite the fact that they're wearing a badge asking not to have their photo taken.