Editorial Portrait Photography

Bo Lutoslawski’s Portrait Photography in Brief

Portrait Photography in Brief is a session / talk about creating images of people. It is about turning your first impression of someone, whom you just met or knew for a while, into a timeless picture.

In the first part I will be talking about a situation within which photographs are taken (a physical space, light and its sources, movement, the intensity of relation between a photographer and a model). Then we will move on to outline the technical opportunities which are available to us (cameras, darkroom or software post-processing) and the composition of these images.

The theme of the second part is a relation between photographers and the publishing world. First photographers: staff employees, agency linked photographers, free-lancers, paparazzi. Then magazines and photography, a subject which I divided into four representative groups using well-known names as examples: Condê Nast Publications, National Geographic, The Independent, Hello Magazine.

And if all of this is not enough and we still have time, I will briefly present input from the legendary designer, Alexey Brodovitch

This talks will take place at the Centre at St Pauls, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 1JP on 27, 29, 30 October 2009 10am – noon or 2pm – 4pm. The fee is £15 for students (£18 for others).

For me the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. In order to “give a meaning” to the world, one has to feel involved in what one frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry. It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression. To take a photograph is to hold one’s breath when all faculties converge in a face of fleeing reality. It is at that moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.

To take a photograph means to recognize – simultaneously and within a fraction of a second– both the fact itself and the rigorous organisation of visually perceived forms that give it meaning.

It is putting one’s head, one’s eye, and one’s heart on the same axis.

More on this subject: my web site

John Quysner, 23/10/2009