Photographic Portrait

Photographic Portrait Part 1

As I mentioned in previous posts, even though having a picture taken in a 19th-century studio was difficult, often unsuccessful, and sometimes even traumatizing, photography's potential for portraiture was not only noticed but fully embraced.

This is nothing new – people have loved to have their likenesses produced throughout history. The wealthy would keep artists in residence to produce images for the entire family. Great painters would not only supply images that resembled the models but also convey messages that these affluent sitters-patrons were happy to convey (and paid for that).

Think about this 16th-century portrait of Henry VIII by Hans Holbein, which exudes power, pride, and wealth of the monarch.

People with fewer resources would employ less famous and often significantly less skilled painters to create their own “portraits” for display to friends and neighbors and to preserve for posterity. It seems like that sometimes even the most powerful just could not get a decent portrait! When visiting some smaller local museums, you might wonder about the true talent of these painters and who paid for their work. See this portrait of Charles V the Hapsburg painted by an artist who mercifully remains anonymous.

The advent of photography brought significant changes to the artistic landscape. Portraits became easier and cheaper to obtain. By the mid-1800s, photographic portraits were a novelty and decidedly fashionable, though photographers, like painters, varied greatly in skill and dedication.

Over the past 185 years, the photographic portrait has evolved into its own genre, with numerous sub-genres, becoming a staple occupation for many photographers. It has taught us much about ourselves, filled our family albums with memories, facilitated identification, and set new aesthetic standards, among other things. Over the next couple of weeks, I am going to explore this topic.

The image often regarded as the first photographic portrait is Robert Cornelius' self-portrait, akin to a modern selfie, created using the daguerreotype process in 1839.

Imagine this – there was no specific "format" for what a photographic portrait should look like, with painting being the only aesthetic model for portraiture.

Photographers often drew inspiration from this source. For instance, Scottish artists David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson recreated Rembrandt-like lighting and poses in their works.

The main debate would unfold between Pictorialism and Naturalistic Photography.