http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk 9The Pocket Photographer
by Mike Kus
£14.99, Laurence King, hardback, 144 pages,
ISBN: 9781913947682
Although many of the tips featured in
this charming little book will be very
familiar to the readers of AP, it still
serves as an excellent reminder that
you don’t always need your ‘proper’
camera in order to get a fantastic shot.
It also never hurts to have a refresher of the
basics, covering ground you might already be aware
of – you may benefit from the odd reminder or two.
You might additionally use it as a little workbook to
get you familiar with your own smartphone if you’ve
thus far not really used it for anything other than its
originally intended purpose.
A book like this also makes a fantastic stocking
filler Christmas present for those in your life who are
also interested in photography but perhaps only have
a phone with which to do it.David Hurn: Swaps
Until 27 March 2022, National Museum
Cardiff, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NP, Free,
see museum.wales for opening times
After being delayed due to the Covid pandemic, the
second presentation of highlights from the David
Hurn Collection has finally gone on display at the
National Museum of Wales.
Well known for his Swaps project, whereby Hurn
swapped prints with the great and good of the
photography world, his vast collection was donated
to the museum in 2017.
The latest exhibition will feature 68 photographs
celebrating David’s keen eye for a picture and his
support of other photographers. It has been curated
by Martin Parr and Magnum Photos, originally for
Magnum’s 70th anniversary in 2017. Hurn has been
part of the collective for 55 years himself.
A must-see for anyone interested in some of the
biggest names in global photography – including
Hurn himself – this exhibition represents a real
highlight of the calendar year.Books & exhibitions
The latest and best books and exhibitions
from the world of photography© DAVID HURN/MAGNUM PHOTOS/AM
GUEDDFACYMRUDo you have something you’d like to get off your chest? Send us your thoughts in around
500 words to the email address on page 3 and win a year’s digital subscription to AP.I
t all started with AP’s Portrait
Special (27 July 2021). In the
opening 7 Days section all four
‘portraits’ were of models: people
booked purely to be the human in the
shot. Later, the feature Natural Light
Portraiture declared the first job to be
‘finding a model’, paid or unpaid.
Perhaps that would be about searching
out individual personality? Hardly, it
turned out – although ‘you have to show
a bit of interest in the model’.
Had I been wrong all these years, in
assuming that portraiture is about
capturing the particular character of an
individual? About who they are? I went
to the authoritative Grove Dictionary of
Art and found that, while allowing that
‘portrait’ is a complicated concept,
Grove’s ‘serviceable definition’ is an
image ‘in which the artist is engaged
with the personality of his sitter and is
preoccupied with his or her
characterisation as an individual’.
That takes much more listening,
intuiting, thinking and even research
than ‘a bit of interest’.
When I look at Damien Lovegrove’s
exquisite portrait of his ballet dancer
friend Yulia, I think of photographer
Yousuf Karsh saying, ‘There is a brief
moment when all there is in a man’s
mind and soul and spirit is reflected
through his eyes, his hands, his attitude.
This is the moment to record’ – the
‘man’ in this case being Yulia. And
Philippe Halsman asked his portrait
sitters to jump, because ‘The mask
falls. The real self becomes visible’.
But the goal of a portrait-maker
needn’t be mask-stripping, soul-baring,
or art at all. Commercial photographers
are paid by actors and business
people to take headshots, but they still
ask the sitter ‘How do you want to
look?’, ‘What narrative do you want to
convey?’, ‘What jobs are you hoping
for?’. Individual personality, howeverTHE
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Is a portrait simply a picture of a person?When is a portrait not a portrait?
asks Emma DarwinViewpointEmma Darwinpin-striped, is the subject, as it is when
a newspaper pays Cecil Beaton to
photograph Winston Churchill, or
Madonna pays Herb Ritts to photograph
herself – and as it is when you take a
picture of your husband cooking, your
nephew in his wedding suit or your
favourite singer: this is who they are.
Mr AP himself, Nigel Atherton,
completely disagrees with me. Drawing
on a different dictionary, he defines a
portrait simply as a picture of a person,
seeing no difference whether the
subject is a paid model, or a family
friend. But if I buy or borrow a person
as I would a sheaf of flowers or an
antique jug, then pose, light and
photograph them, it’s for the visual
value of their physical appearance:
what they are, not who they are. I may
learn a lot, and the result may be a
beautiful picture of what that model is,
but only marginally of who. To me, that
isn’t a portrait.Emma Darwin writes fiction and creative non-fiction
for work, and takes photographs for fun, but somehow
the two things never stay separate for long© MARKGREY