The Commission: "The Portrait Issue"

As a research task for the day we have been asked to compare three separate portraits and analyse their intent.
Beginning first with Scottish photographer Finlay MacKay, and his portrait of David Weir.

This piece was dubbed 'Changing Pace' and is part of his 'Road to 2012' series, which he has been commissioned to create by the national portrait gallery.
MacKay's style is very different to what we see in most contemporary photography, as he comes from a fine art photography background, he uses incredibly complex lighting set ups, to push the boundaries of his photograph until it no longer looks like a photograph, and more like a fine art painting.
In a short video of his 'Road to 2012' commission (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S6vxUxtLqE) he explains how he began using one or two lights in his photographs, and then eventually made his lighting more and more complex until he was using more like 30 lights per shot.

Looking at his other works such as his Lavazza Calender commission we can see his fine art backgrounds and how it influences his photographic style, as he rejects the normal conventions of photographic lighting and set ups. It is almost as though his mind delves into a fantasy realm, where in he is painting a scene before him, and that is translated into photography for us.

The entire scene for 'Changing Pace' is an unusual piece to glance at, as you recognise it as a photograph, and not only a photograph but one taken outside in the natural environment, however the lighting and framing he uses converts this into being also a highly constructed piece. Each item in shot is perfectly lit and focused, be it the shadow, the path, the man, or the tree, his meticulous lighting set ups make it appear as though he has individually cut out each element of this photograph separately and pasted them together.

Ulrich Gebert's work is also very carefully considered and constructed, yet they are of a natural landscape, unconstructed setting.
Looking at this portrait 'Freischneider, Gebert looks at the relation between man and nature, specifically us and agriculture. He explores how man tackles a natural unbound element of agriculture, scything it down into something else. His work highlights a confrontation, a culprit-victim relation between man and nature, as nature becomes an item of conceptual order, meticulousness and correct and incorrect design.
His portrait here portrays man as almost a 'juggernaught' like character, facing agriculture fully armoured and equipped. We can see similarities in the construction of angle and lighting between Gebert and MacKay's work in that they are not studio based, however the lighting used creates a highly unnatural, but perfectly outlined image, bringing out light and colours in a natural scene into an unnatural way. Also much like MacKay's athletes, the body posture and expression is in perfect form, where as MacKay's models being athletes automatically present themselves in perfect form and posture in a sport, Gebert uses the man's visor to reinforce his facial expression to create an overpowering stern expression, highlight the angles of his face in a meticulous detail.

Toby Glanville is quite contrasting in style to both Gebert and MacKay in terms of his photographic technique and style, though he again works outside of a studio basis, looking at more natural everyday scenes.
Glanville works however with a far subtler style, as a pose to the extreme unnaturally perfected lighting in MacKay and Gebert's work.
Glanville looks at workers, often in the food industry, and captures their personality through their profession.

His characterisation is very subtle, but in their posture, and facial expression we see a glimpse of exposure, and vulnerability from each person, and shot in the natural lighting conditions of their profession, they become perfectly characterised, and suddenly the audience could not imagine them as anything other than what they are being presented as.

Looking over the three photographers, we see variations and similarities in their methods and techniques, but all adapt their own preferred photographic style, to enhance and characterise their subjects perfectly, so that every aspect of their given models profession is reflected within the photograph.