What is a Portrait?

A pictorial representation of a person usually showing the face. The first known portrait of an identifiable individual dates back to 3100 BC in Egypt. OK, that's enough of that nonsense; let's stop the history lesson.



To paraphrase two legendary portrait photographers Yousuf Karsh and Arnold Newman:

Karsh contends that a photograph (more appropriately a portrait) should reveal everything that there is to reveal about the subject in a single image.

Newman says that there is no way possible to reveal everything about your subject in a single image.

To state it simply, Newman is correct and Karsh is so far off that it is scary. How can you reveal everything about a person in a single image? It is impossible. The best that you can hope to do is reveal a little about a persons personality in the 1/250th of a second that it takes to snap the shutter.

The person that they choose to show you at that single moment may or may not be them and whether you to choose to accurately represent the person that they are showing you is an entirely different matter all together.





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