“Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.”
Oscar Wilde
Liz has handled the Birmingham’s People posts up until now so I thought it was about time I wrote one. I photographed the majority of the portraits over the weekend and it was both an incredibly intense couple of days and an immensely rewarding time meeting so many different people. It completely threw me out of my comfort zone, something which every photographer needs from time to time.
The ‘Gruffalo’ here is sporting wonderful makeup and was having a great time at Artsfest. His image, in a very direct way, reminds me of the masks that so many people adopt when faced with an annoying photographer trying to capture their image.
The photographic portraiture that I love, and attempted to explore with this project, is that which attempts to break through the mask, to show something human and real away from stock poses that are practised and stale. It’s an ambitious goal to have and made much easier by subjects like this who was incredibly at ease and calm with the camera, unlike many of the adults!
One of the features of our studio system was to link every sitter with a number, so we could match them with their name (and make these posts easier to write!)
I like this portrait as I think our photographer has captured some of Irina’s spark and enthusiam, which is hard to do when your subject isn’t looking directly at the camera. I liked her earrings too, and asked our photographer to get a few shots up close so you could see her individuality and style.
Mrs Kaur is a very beautiful woman – that much is evident from the photo.