alt.street 'The Portrait(s)'

Evidence abounds of the skill of the various artists who will draw your

portrait for a few dollars in the center of Kyiv, Ukraine, including one

beautiful, young woman, left rear. Your ratings, critiques and

observations are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly,

critically or wish to make an observation, please submit a helpful and

constructive comment; thank you in advance for sharing your

photographic knowledge to help improve my photography. Enjoy!

John

Love it John, of two main reasons. The eyes of the the very skeptical guy low in the frame and the "frame" of art works sewn on the casket of the artist. Beautifully framed photo of a a fairly mundane theme. As usual, very well seen.

Many people take photos of these artists, and so have I.

This is by far the very best; the one I'd exhibit.

And for the reasons you state.

I might also add, although it is apparent, that the theme of repetition prevails throughout.

That is one reason why this succeeds.  The portrait of the man's eyes, lower right, is just one special addition.  (You should have seen the young woman being drawn, upper right, she was extremely pretty, but it's not my 'art' to replicate a photo of a pretty girl when she's being drawn, but instead to make something else, and I hope 'unique'.

She really was so pretty that much of the time she was being dawn/sketched, she drew a crowd of onlookers, and one could see her growing pride in her looks.  She was quite young -- early teens I think - and too short to be a runway model but otherwise model material.

john

John (Crosley)

It is a pleasure to look at an image, which is not a mere laundry list of objects.

What is seen in the photo is a face,its unfinished portrait, the act of finishing it, stack of finished portraits and of course their producer.

What is noticeable is the difference between the face and its portrait. You realize that you are seeing a 'photo' of the face and the 'photo' of the portrait. Then you wonder whether the 'finish' is going to be 'faithful' or 'creatively different'. Grist to the mill is provided. The stack must have been a carefully chosen one to be representative of the artists skill, and you have exploited it to the hilt to provide richness to the image.

marvelous visual treat.

You have made a noteworthy comment - one that required lots of thought.

But I must make a correction in your surmises, so it does not offend the artists who regularly ply their trade at this place.

The portraits you see are in different styles and belong to various portrait artists who work regularly there; if you look closely you will see significant differences in the styles.

That does not detract at all from the heart or essence of your very well made comment, which ADDS to the analysis of this particular photo, and can easily be understood and forgiven.

Indeed, if i were an artist, all those different styles might indeed be 'mine' as I am capable of producing in so many different genres in photos, from nudes to news to landscapes -- even an insect 'macro' which came out very well.  Some 'artists' are similarly talented, even some who do drawings there for a living can do caricature to serious work depending on the customer's desires.  Many take their work very seriously; some are amazingly dedicated including the artist depicted who is very industrious and among the most proeductive.

I'll try anything almost in photography; but 'street' though is my first love.  No models, no schedules, no lighting equpment but sadly, alas, no customers, either. ;~(

Except for the small correction your comment is 'right on' and praiseworthy in itself.

I wish all my comments were so well thought out and so well written, and I get some of the best comments in all of Photo.net,  I think.

Thanks ever so.

john

John (Crosley)

<quote>various artists who will draw your portrait for a few dollars in the center of Kyiv, Ukraine<unquote>

You had indicated something of the flavor of the place, certainly.

I had three options to presume what the image communicated.

The doublet portrait behind and partly hidden by the person posing for portrait belongs to one artist, while the other two sets belong to the artist/subject of this image.

All the three sets belong to the subject/artist of this image.

All the three sets belong to three different artists, with the one nearest to the viewer belonging to an artist , who is not within field of view.

I thought the first option as the most probable, from my preconception of what constitutes 'personal space'.

Assuming the easel with 6 portraits are what 'belongs' to this artist, I was only wondering how the finish is going to be, from within that set; like the one on the extreme right (top) which looks closer to the image in this photo or the one in the center top which is how it is shaping up.

Analysis apart, it is very interesting how you can capture an object/task/process and even an industry in an image!!

regards

P.S If all the 6 portraits mounted on one easel belong to different artists, this must be a very exotic place indeed.

I am very moved by your statement:

'Analysis apart, it is very interesting how you can capture an object/task/process and even an industry in an image!!'

This for me is the ultimate accolade.

It just boils down to my basic premise:  'try to capture all the interesting things within the four corners of the frame and leave all the uninteresting things out.'

This is a photo not about an artist making a portrait but about all artists in this particular area making an industry of their portraits, and you were wise to note that.

For guidance, all artists have different 'looks' or 'genres', and sometimes separate 'genres' within their work, from 'straight' to 'caricature'  They like me very much and most regard me as a fellow artist, some even with some envy, I think.

The six portraits belong to the artist who is sketching; the pretty young miss chose him because he is a serious and industrious worker, who produces pretty straight work.  I like him, and he is often busy.

Other works, foreground, belong to another artist, from another good artist but an entirely different style(s).

Background portraits again show another different style.

Depending on the day, there may be three or eight or more different artists and when weather is inclement, they retreat to an underground passage.

Their work makes good photographic grist because they respect that it requires a subject to be 'still' to be captured, although I require minimum stillness -- far less than they expect, even into the 1/100th of a second time frame or less, sometimes which surprises them, but for a photo like this, it is carefully composed, with a very slow shutter speed, and an aperture stopped down for maximum depth of field (no tripod, almost never, for street).

I posted another photo almost simultaneously in which the frame was filled almost entirely with blackness, yet the 'frame was filled'.  In that even the blackness served to 'focus on the subject' by its great contrast.

There are many photographic tricks, and most of them come so naturally to me.

Every one of my photos is different.

If I start taking the same photo, over and over again, just shoot me.

The world will excuse you.

There is in a photo magazine a famous wedding photographer/portraitist who has his own 'style' which he writes about again and again and his style is practically patented -- it's guaranteed to make a great but standard portrait.

Great for wedding photographers, but I'd not be caught dead doing things like that.

I try to be master of the extemporaneous.

That is my métier.

Thank you Ranga,

So much.

john

John (Crosley)