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Portraits

Show Us Your Best Portrait, Win A Full Lighting Kit
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1.35 - "Snap Shot" 

Something I love about Mexico are its colours. Me and me lens captured many yellows, reds and oranges in this beautiful country, seemingly attracted to the warmth.
Captured with my Nikon D750 and 24mm prime lens I walk behind my mother up a tower on another adventure. I ask her to pause as the sun shines through the yellow glass, down the spiral staircase and hits the form of her legs, bag and dress.
The geometry stunned me and I felt like a child again following her into the unknown, exciting places we travelled, watching her legs and Indian bag slung over her shoulder she always wears.

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3 Comments

But how is this a portrait?

I understand that some may not find it a portrait, but personally for me a portrait is an image that represents a person. A self portrait with no face (aka objects) could be classed as a portrait in a more creative way, it's not black and white. But it's individual perception :).

Annie Leibovitz once took a portrait of an artist named Christo. He was known for draping fabrics over large objects, like buildings or trees. He even wrapped fabric around a small island. For her portrait of him, Annie opted to wrap him up from head to toe in cloth.

This made sense and was a novel approach to a modern portrait. The difference between her shot of Christo and your shot of your mother, though, is that her photo connected the artist to his art work.

Your image has no context and no way for the average viewer to understand what it's about. This is supported by the fact it has nearly 30 votes that average 1 star. Even if it was classified as a piece of fine art, I would say the cropping is horrible, the lighting is underexposed, and the color is dull.

I think as photographers, we have to learn to separate our emotions from our images. Just because WE feel an emotional connection to the image does not make it a good image for the average viewer. Just something to keep in mind.