Portraiture

Tony Vaccaro was not only famous for his life-risking war photographs, but also for his unique portraiture. Vaccaro always said that he wanted to capture his opinions on the subject, not theirs. In order to do this, Vaccaro tried to sum up the subject in one word and try and portray that word in a photo.


This is the portrait of Picasso taken by Tony Vaccaro

He believed his job was to place the subject of the portrait on a pedestal, and to make sure it was the 'right size', to show who they are. He said it had to have a special quality - forget their appearance, bring out who they really are.

He was invited to picassos house in france to take portraits of him, Picasso was posing, but Tony fooled him into thinking there was something wrong with his camera in order to get the photo of Picasso looking unposed and natural. Tony believed that in order to determine whoever it was' personality he would sum their personality up in one word and try and then capture that word but in a photo.

I think that the main difference between portraiture and photojournalism is the fact that portraiture is staged, and photojournalism is not posed as the photographer is always unaware of whats going to happen. The photos taken in photojournalism are real events, and the photographer has to have a 'decisive moment' in order to get the shot they want. In portraiture however, the photographer will sometimes have to give some guidance to the subject, and they are typically in a studio or in their own house.

Back the 1800's portraits were only ever made for very rich, wealthy and royal people, however now they are made for anyone and everyone. Throughout time, i think that because many people are able to set up their own companies and they make their portraits available to anybody-because they can in this day and age. Also, technology has advanced meaning anyone can take portraits and get hold of the lighting, cameras, backdrops and other technical needs to make a portrait.