PRO INSIGHT
Portraits
Selfies and Beyond
By Lou Jones
Since inventors learned how to make the sun
turn silver-black, photography has been used
for many things: sacred and profane. Practiced
all over the world, shutterbugs take pictures of
everything from landscapes to still lifes, the latest
fashions to real estate, propaganda to memories.
However most of us, at one time or another,
have resorted to taking portraits--immortalizing
our friends, family, acquaintances, even perfect
strangers. Portraits are the convergence of
familiar subject matter--readily available--with
what is varied and exciting.
Both weekend-rank amateurs and hardened
professionals can consider cherubic, young
faces, craggy, visages of wizened old-timers and
foreign, multinational physiognomies equally
interesting. Energetic juveniles to seniors
confined to wheelchairs may all find tremendous
enjoyment in portraying people around them.
One-hour $1.99 prints that fill overstuffed photo
albums as well as silver gelatin enlargements for
hanging above the mantle of suburban fireplaces,
make up the vast majority of the world’s daily
billion-plus photographic output. Portraits are an
excellent excuse to take pictures. One of the best.
However, much can be said of the different types
of portraits--why and how we take them. Oxford
Dictionaries selected “selfie” the new Word of
the Year 2013. Because cell phones have made
photography so ubiquitous along with the instant
gratification they provide, self portraits top the
photo list. The need and ego to create selfies
has escalated in the supercharged technology of
urban society.
9| PicsArt Monthly