This project explores the control of the artist/ photographer, in relation to portrait photography.

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My work for this project investigates the extent to which the artist/ photographer- and perhaps their experiences or bias- impacts, influences or controls the portrait photographs that they create, and the extent to which they choose what is presented to viewers in portrait photography. Thus, this work questions the constructed nature of portrait photography, which viewers, or even the artist/ photographer, may not be aware of.

 

This project aims to question if photographic portraits are, indeed, centred around the subject/ model and their life or personality, or if portrait photographs are, in fact, more centred around the life, personality, or style of the artist/ photographer who creates them, while also questioning who truly creates portrait photographs. Therefore, this project also investigates the ideas of the authorship, and even ownership, of photographic portraits.
 

To explore this concept, I created a photobook, which features a series of portrait photographs in which the subjects/ models directed themselves, and had a greater amount of control, in relation to the portrait photographs which were created of them.