portrait project

My sister, cousin and I were lucky enough to visit the National Gallery in Victoria last Monday when we flew down for my cousin Noni's wedding. I was so enthralled to be able to see a portrait exhibition called 'Timelines' (see poster, top left corner, picture below).

By a weird coincidence (I love weird coincidences) one of the subjects in the portraits was a girl my sister went to school with in little ol' Darwin. I think her name is Anna Phillips. She's in many ads on TV. But I digress.

I was so inspired I decided to give portraits a go and started with my Mum.


While I was surprised to find she was a difficult subject to capture (she wasn't able to be expressionless for me) I was so delighted when I accidentally saw the images together in a collection, see above. My sister tells me it's the best work I've ever done.!!! Wow, that's quite a compliment.

Anyway, I scribbled some notes, since there was a gruff looking security guard woman sitting on a chair and glaring at me (I was carrying my camera around with its enormous lens sticking out)
and I was too chicken to take any pictures. The main ideas I wanted to remember are:

• the effectiveness of a gnarly wooden fence for a background
• doing a 'then and now' portrait years apart, in exactly the same spot (black and white, then contrasted with colour to show 'now')
• scapturing the subject without smiling but looking directly at the camera
• framing an interesting portrait then handwriting below the subject directly on to the mat
• closeups of hands especially two pairs of hands eg. grandma and child, or hand holding an object (teapot, wedding ring)
• portraits of elderly ladies really dressed up
• an eye (closeup)
• from the floor, capturing a Daddy holding his baby's hands as he walks (showing their legs from the knees down)
• before and after (pregnant woman, then woman with baby)
• a reclining portrait where the subject stretches from the bottom left hand corner to the top right corner
• black and white photos printed on to cardstock then coloured with pencils in all the colours of the rainbow using a cross-hatch technique
  

What was so affirming at this exhibition, was a black and white photograph of a mother, nude, with her little four year old boy, taken by a very accomplished photographer. He was the Daddy and the note said he had been taking their photos, particularly the mother's, almost daily for 20 years.

Hello! And they say 'obsessed' like it's a bad thing???????????