Intimation of life : photographic portraiture in art
type: CreativeWork
description: Photographic artists have a continuing desire to express intimately aspects of their social world through the genre of portraiture. However, in attempting to make known the lives of those around them, portraitists encounter a range of complexities inherent in the representation of the human subject in a two-dimensional visual field. Portraits were initially an indicator of social class until the introduction of photography, when more and more people became involved in their production and ownership. It was at its inception that the photographic portrait assumed conventions consistent with those of the painted portrait in Western art and its social use. These conventions have persisted and, along with the accumulation of conventions specific to the medium, have come to define photographic portraiture as a genre. It is either from within the limitations of the genre, or through the challenging of its authority, that artists seek to portray issues relevant to contemporary life. This endeavour is affected by certain concerns associated with a person's photographic representation. These include issues pertaining to notions of likeness, identity, subjectivity, and realism. A photographic image of someone has traditionally been perceived to convey a realistic impression of that person's identity, however, concepts of identity and realism have come under increasing scrutiny, contesting the authority of the photographic representation. The portrait's verisimilitude is also undermined by limitations in photographic processes and technology, and the manipulation and control exercised by the photographer who can frame, filter, crop, and enlarge the image at will. In considering the inadequacies of the medium, the fragmentation of identity and subjectivity, and threats concerning the demise of the genre, a further concern to contemporary portraiture is the status of the psychological interaction between photographer and subject. For many participants this exchange is an importan…
abstract: Photographic artists have a continuing desire to express intimately aspects of their social world through the genre of portraiture. However, in attempting to make known the lives of those around them, portraitists encounter a range of complexities inherent in the representation of the human subject in a two-dimensional visual field. Portraits were initially an indicator of social class until the introduction of photography, when more and more people became involved in their production and ownership. It was at its inception that the photographic portrait assumed conventions consistent with those of the painted portrait in Western art and its social use. These conventions have persisted and, along with the accumulation of conventions specific to the medium, have come to define photographic portraiture as a genre. It is either from within the limitations of the genre, or through the challenging of its authority, that artists seek to portray issues relevant to contemporary life. This endeavour is affected by certain concerns associated with a person's photographic representation. These include issues pertaining to notions of likeness, identity, subjectivity, and realism. A photographic image of someone has traditionally been perceived to convey a realistic impression of that person's identity, however, concepts of identity and realism have come under increasing scrutiny, contesting the authority of the photographic representation. The portrait's verisimilitude is also undermined by limitations in photographic processes and technology, and the manipulation and control exercised by the photographer who can frame, filter, crop, and enlarge the image at will. In considering the inadequacies of the medium, the fragmentation of identity and subjectivity, and threats concerning the demise of the genre, a further concern to contemporary portraiture is the status of the psychological interaction between photographer and subject. For many participants this exchange is an importan…
author: Munsie, Richard
keywords: Portrait photography, Portraits., Photography
date published: 2002-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-27T19:23:07Z
provider: Edith Cowan University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia