Imagine a Better Portrait

So, what makes for a good portrait?

Is it just a reasonable likeness?  If so, that would explain the proliferation of assembly-line photographs of students, employees-of-the-month, and families wearing matching shirts and matching smiles.

Is it just a snapshot with a cell phone? The multitude of “selfies” and rotating Facebook profiles suggest this is what many people believe.

Is it an exaggerated effort to be different or trendy--to be Art with a capital A?  Young, fashion-conscious photographers who are looking for a way to differentiate themselves from the pack affirm this point of view.

Is it a beautifully lit and staged and retouched studio image about which people reverently proclaim “It looks like a painting!” This is what many portrait studios sell.

Or is it something more?

Consider these two photographs..

The studio portrait is American, circa 1928. It is a beautiful black and white image of a family, a lovely photograph in and of itself. Is it a good portrait? As a photographer, I like it. Good composition, lighting, and tonality. Believable expressions and gestures. I wish more family photographs looked as good as this one.

Beyond that, what does it mean to you if you don't know the people in the photograph? Wouldn't you love to know their names, where they lived, what happened to them as the Great Depression and World War II engulfed their world?

The snapshot is a very early Polaroid photograph from about 1948-49 of a young woman. The print has faded a bit over time, but what remains? The season is Summer. She is wearing a wedding ring and is in a strapless bathing suit. Chin resting in her hand is an absolutely believable gesture. The tilt of her head, the direct gaze into the lens – really quite an intriguing expression that makes you wonder about her story. I think it is a charming and meaningful image, but what is the significance of it now, sixty years later other than the sense of mystery that it evokes?

The point I'm trying to make is that photographs alone are very limited in what they can preserve. They show what something, someplace, and/or someone looked like from the point of view of the photographer. Photographs at best can only suggest what the internal reality behind the faces might be. At worst, photographs fabricate or obscure the deeper truth of a person.

By the way, the studio photograph shows my mother as a 5 year old, with her sister, brothers and parents. Because I knew them, the picture will always have meaning for me.  The Polaroid is also of my mother, made by my father. Again, to me it suggests many things, because I know some of their story.  But what will these photographs mean to my grandchildren?

The take-away is this: Before a portrait can be great it has to be a good photograph. But if you want it to be a better portrait, a portrait that does more than scratch the surface of what it means to be a human being who has thoughts, feelings and connections to other human beings, then combine the photograph with an oral or personal history interview, a memoir or biography. The words and the picture together is what makes a portrait better.