Commission unit- 'The Portrait Issue' task

For this task I have been asked to compare and contrast the three images, Finlay MacKay's ‘Changing Pace, David Weir', Toby Glanville's ‘Actual Life’ & Ulrich Gebert's ‘Freischneider’, focussing on visual strategies and the way the photographer as represented the individual's agenda, background & identity through they way they have captured them.

I will firstly look at MacKay's portrait; Finlay MacKay is one of the few photographers that have been commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery to work on ‘Road to 2012’, a three year project to portray the journey to the Olympics in London. 

'Louis Smith' by Finlay MacKay

The photographs are to show both the athletes and behind the scenes who are working to make the event a success. They are a series of striking portraits in dramatic training moments.

For this series MacKay moved away from a traditional sports approach, he began by observing the athletes and then responding to the environment that the athletes and trainers are working in. His images almost shows the journey that each athlete has taken to get to the point they are now and on to the Olympics. 

‘Changing Pace, David Weir’

His image ‘Changing Pace, David Weir’ is very optimistic with bright blue skies and green grass surrounding the athlete. It is perfectly still yet there is the feel of action and fast movement by the posture of Weir and the way he is positioned on the road about to drop out of shot a second later. The long winding road is a metaphor for the way the athlete has gone through a long journey to get to this stage ready for the games, striving forward and past the camera which is positioned as if on the edge of a race track.

As the image has the title ‘Changing Pace’ and he is moving down a road the audience gets the feeling that he could be going as fast as a car shooting past. Visually the location is a wide open space, the nature represents the freedom the athlete has to go anywhere & the endless feel of the road portrays the feeling that he can achieve anything.

The photograph has a large depth of field as everything in the frame seems in focus showing that the metaphorical scenario is just as important as the athlete; this is becausethe audience has to read emotions etc. from the surroundings with Weir being quite a predominant but small part of the image.

The lighting overall seems quite natural however there is obviously an artificial flash involved in lighting the athletes face and shoulder mainly; this gives the whole image quite a good range of tone. The main focus of the image is the athletes and showing their main sport/strength off and this in turn is showing that we are ready for the games, striving to be the best.

Finlay MacKay was said to have been very picky about getting the right facial expression from Weir, and kept asking him to repeat the action; he was apparently cursed at by fellow athletes for standing in the middle of their training zone and holding them up. This shows that the image in a way is very posed & well planned shot and not a one-off image while he was training.

Unlike the previous image this next photograph from the series ‘Actual Life’ 2002 by Toby Glanville portrays the figures profession in a much more sensitive and subtle manner. Between 1997 and 2000 Glanville produced this series of people in their occupations and environments in Kent which were all published in a book. All of the images seem to be exposing both the subject and their profession while not intruding at all. 

His subjects very obviously know they are being photographed and are in a way posed as they look straight in to the camera lens however he doesn’t seem to be interrupting them in anyway maybe due to the natural locations that they look normal & relaxed in the way they are standing. There is a feeling of openness in these images making the audience feel comfortable in their presence as they are very welcoming which sparks the viewer’s curiosity.  

'Actual Life' 2002 by Finlay MacKay

The colour palette is very neutral and slightly saturated which ages the images and especially this image that I am specifically looking at is reminiscent of a Victorian image when the subject would have had to stand/sit very still due to exposure times. The tones also give off a friendly, cosy feel and atmosphere which reflects her needed personality for her job.  The natural lighting also hints back to a simpler way of working, with what seems to be the only light source shining through the blinded window.

The woman has been centralised amidst her location which gives that audience hints of her occupation most probably being a primary school or nursery teacher. This puts her into context and by capturing her surrounded by her work gives this sense that she is proud at what she does and welcomes us, the audience in to her space.

The distanced and eye level camera position creates this feeling of mutual respect between subject, photographer and audience; while intruding on her occupational space it is not intruding on her personal space. The feeling that it could almost be a mirror you are looking into when looking at this image like most of the other image’s in this series could represent and reflect the rest of England’s ‘actual’ lives which I feel is the aim of Glanville’s images.

The series 'Freischneider' by Ulrich Gebert comments mainly on how we as a society perceive nature and what we think is correct and perfect. He photographs two ‘Freischneider’ or in English hedge cutter alternating between three images of neatly trimmed hedges. Through the way he photographs the men he tries to portray the importance and danger of this occupation through the equipment they use without including it. Gebert’s work shows nature as a raw material for humans and the way we like to order things. 

The very close-up portraits of the workers positioned next to separate images of hedges highlights the way man and nature do not have to physically confront one another to validate our power over it. Helmets, face shield, ear muffs and protective suits protects the men from receiving wounds from the branches and foliage as if going to war with it, and the way we look slightly up at the figures creates this feeling of a warrior in armour going to battle; he is poised, him against nature. The safety equipment also helps the audience to clarify what sort of society the workers must be in as many countries would not provide this gear. 

'Freischneider' by Ulrich Gebert

The image has a very shallow depth of field with quite a simple background barely hinting at the location of his occupation being nature however; Gebert probably believed that the uniform was probably enough to decipher this. While the background makes you feel very out in the open the figure actually looks very confined within his uniform.

The image is very posed and quite intrusive again highlighted by the vast space behind, the face is textured and in shadow due to the shield which obscures his features however the surrounding black edge of the visor frames and draws attention to his face. The natural sunlight is used to light the scene which reflects the normal working conditions of the men much like Toby Glanville’s image. Sunlight shines off of the helmet front which is very bold and artificially red which gives a sense of danger surrounding the hazardous job and this stand out against the positive feel of the bright blue sky.  

Again the slight elevation of the figure and the way he is looking out of shot creates this disconnection between audience and subject which could reflect the isolated nature of his job as it would be dangerous to be working with several people. 

So in comparison, Finlay’s image has many more technical aspects to the shot probably due to the importance of the commission and therefore planning involved; for example he uses a wide angled lens, flash, and lots of post-production such as exaggerating the contrast and heightening the colour overall, he would have taken several shots to create the right feel of the athletes focus and involvement in the sport. On the other hand Glanville’s image is much more intimate within quite a confined space and the colours are warm expressing friendliness and highlighting her profession. Whereas, Gebert’s photograph has a very close crop with only a couple of props eg. helmet to hint at what his profession could be.

The passion to the job comes through very strongly in the athlete’s portrait as an extended level of his hobby as it is a very strong, focussed pose. The portrait of the teacher on the other hand would probably want to portray a warm & welcoming feel as she would need these people skills & positive personality to have the job. And finally the hedge cutter has more of an isolated job away from the public therefore he is remote and secluded in this image & the job could be seen as more of a money earner than an extension from a hobby despite it being questionably the most risky job that these three subjects undertakes.  

All of the colour schemes & crops of the individual images also reflect them in their occupations; MacKay’s image of David Weir has a very bright colour palette highlighting a bright future in the games as well as the distant future and the surrounding open space could be portraying freedom despite Weir being quite confined to the wheelchair.

Toby Glanville’s image of the teacher has quite a saturated by warm colour scheme which reflects the woman’s warm personality and while she is in quite a confined space the angle is relatively wide for the location showing she enjoys her surroundings in the way that she seems to blend in.

Ulrich Gebert’s photograph of the hedge cutter has again quite a bright bold colour palette however this time it reflects the alert personality the men must have for the occupation and the cropped close up highlights the occupation as being an individual’s job, he needs to be alone for his safety.