Portrait Photography

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Pieter Hugo

born 1976

Pieter Hugo is a contemporary photographer from South Africa. He is interested in the relationship between the photographer and the photographed subject and the associated issues of consent. He uses cumbersome equipment in order to necessitate negotiation with his subjects before he is able to photograph them. The images below are from a series of photographs taken in Nigeria called The Hyena and Other Men.

Abdullahi Mohammed with Mainasara, Lagos, Nigeria, 2007

Alhaji Hassan with Ajasco,Ogere Remo, Nigeria, 2007

Dayaba Usman with the monkey clear Nigeria, 2005

Mallam Galadima Ahmadu with Jamis, Abuja Nigeria, 2007

Mummy Ahmadu and Mallam Mantari Lamal with Mainasara, Abuja Nigeria, 2007

The hyena men of abuja Nigeria, 2005

Artist's website: http://www.pieterhugo.com

Interview with Pieter Hugo

Nan Goldin
born 1953

Nan Goldin is known for capturing moments, often featuring very private subject matter. She has tended to photograph in-depth particular small groups or individuals, either choosing friends as subjects, or becoming friends with those whom she photographed. Her work has been instrumental in bringing subjects that were to some extent taboo in mainstream society into popular imagery. She captured the intimate lives of couples, day-to-day lives of members of various subcultures, and famously documented the decline of a friend who contracted AIDS from apparent health to death.

To understand her position as a creative individual it is important to think of the times when the photographs were taken (many are from the '70s, '80s and '90s), and understand them in relation to the social contexts in which and for which they were taken.

Misty and Jimmy Paulette in a Taxi, NYC, 1991

Gotscho kissing Gilles, Paros, France, 1993

Claude Cahun
1894 - 1954

Que Me Veux-Tu? (What Do You Want From Me?), 1928

Untitled, 1929

Self-portrait, c.1929

Self-portrait, 1919

Self-portrait, 1927

Self-portrait Covered by Masks, 1929

Self-portrait, 1938

Self-portrait, 1921

Confessions, 1930

Untitled, 1947

Self-portrait, 1928

Self-portrait, Mask c.1928

Untitled, 1927

Gillian Wearing
born 1963

Gillian Wearing is one of the group of artists who rose to prominence in the 1990s known as the Young British Artists or "yBas" (including Sam Taylor Wood, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and Tracy Emin). Wearing currently has a solo show at The Whitechapel Gallery.

Art historians such as A.L. Rees have described the yBas as a group of artists notable for their emphasis on 'content' over 'form' i.e. they look at what the image/video etc. contains, rather than on the material or aesthetic properties of the medium. As a group they were heavily criticised by another Art historian and critic called Julian Stallabrass. In a book called High Art Lite he described their rise to prominence in the 1990s as a product of particular funding and power relations in the UK art world. The yBas' use of photography is often described as opposed to photographers who are interested in the medium of photography (such as Malcolm Le Grice and William Raban, who were associated with a movement in the 1970s called Materialist Film).

The yBas have been accused of establishing a rule of 'content' over 'form' that now dominates the art world in the UK, squeezing out artists interested in the physical or visual properties of work. Their critics see them as producing aesthetically underdeveloped and simplistic work.

There are a lot of people who admire the yBas, however. The fans emphasise the degree to which artists such as Wearing brought contemporary art into mainstream culture, and the confidence with which they often approach potentially awkward subject matter.

The 'for' arguments are those that tend to be put forward in art galleries, so when you look around, remember that there are at least two sides to the issue.

Visit Wearing's show and make up your own mind.

Link to the Whitechapel Gallery exhibition website: http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/gillian-wearing

Shami Chakrabarti by Gillian Wearing, 2011

This portrait is currently on display at The National Portrait Gallery. Entrance is free.

Man holding up placard in 'Signs', 1992-93

John Coplans
1920 - 2003

Self Portrait: Back with Arms Above, 1984

Hands Spread on Knees, 1985

Self-Portrait (Frieze No. 2, Four Panels), 1994

Cindy Sherman
born 1954

Cindy Sherman is often cited as an iconic late 20th century feminist artist. She has spent her career dressing up and photographing herself, often presenting the finished images as untitled film stills. People often interpret her work as investigating prototypes and their role in producing identity. One of the major assertions associated with feminism in the second half of the 20th century was that identity is not something within us, central to our existence, but rather something that we perform.

Untitled, 1976

Untitled Film Still #21, 1978

Untitled #96, 1981

Untitled Film Still #4, 1977

Untitled #92, 1981

Untitled #123, 1983

Untitled #141, 1985

Untitled #66, 1980

Zhang Xiao
born 1981

From the Shanxi series

Zhang Xiao is a contemporary photographer from Sichuan Province, China. He uses gelatine film and made a name for himself taking unstaged photographs of ordinary people in China in large series. One of these was called Coastline. About this series, Zhang said:

China has a long coastline, more than 18,000 kilometres. The eastern coast is the most developed area in China. After thirty years of development, it has become the focus of China, even the world. I want to document the real people and real landscape in current China.