Richard Avedon’s Light

Year ago I got pretty attached to Richard Avedon’s wonderful portraits. For some reason I got the impression that they were made in the studio and you got this beautiful light by careful arrangement of soft boxes:

Then I went to Arles and read there that he only used available light on location. Now, a classmate of mine, Niels, has been working on imitating this light. He tells me that you basically need the shadow of a tall building with the light coming from behind that building. And that’s it. You arrange your model there in the shadow, there will be plenty of light available, and you take the picture.

I must try this when I find the time.

I liked the exhibition at FOAM this spring but perhaps liked even more the one which was in Arles last summer – the colourful fashion photos with the skeletons in them.

What is a portrait?

This is the third portrait I made for the foto techniek “3 portraits of one person” series. Some of my friends in class did not feel that this is a portrait at all – but in the context of the assignment and together with the two others it was accepted. It’s sometimes hard to define what makes a portrait a portrait – we’ve been quite busy approaching this problem from the other side, with our “how not to make a portrait” assignments – and anyway, are strict definitions necessary?

Awkward Family Photos

This blog could be material for our “How not to make a portrait” assignment…

Just one example:

Portrait of Marloes

For Foto Techniek; one of 3 portraits about the same person. This is Marloes at her student house.

I was kinda happy with how this turned out.

Stephan Vanfleteren

A Belgian photographer whose portraits are often nice… Portfolio can be seen here.

We are ugly but we have the music?

I’ve known of Leonard Cohen’s music for 20 years. The first concert I ever attended was his in Helsinki in 1988, and now, exactly 20 years later, I had the chance to see him play again. His music has been important for me in different turning points of my life, and it is again now.

This portrait of his was made by Diana Blok, who will be teaching us Foto Autonoom.

And clenching your fist

For the ones like us

Who are oppressed by the figures of beauty

You fixed yourself

You said well never mind

We are ugly but we have the music…

Projectweek at Koos Breukel’s

The studio and the set up is all Breukel, I was just documenting while he was making a portrait of Leroy and Judith watched from the side… but this is what I got, anyway.