Portraiture Definition

Portraiture 

A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person.

I chose this image because I like how the lighting is dark and very masculine. The dark colours give a very masculine vibe and the fact that it is a picture of a man adds to the effect. I also like how the image is in black and white because it helps with the tones in the image. This image also has good tones because his features are made clearer by the darker and lighter tones, for example his beard has a shadow against it which makes it stand out more. His facial expression also adds to the effect because his stern look makes him seem more threatening which corresponds with the lighting and the tones.

The way this portrait has been taken meets our standards of a political war hero because he looks strong because of the way he is standing, it makes him look like a dominant figure. He is showing a serious demeanour and the lighting adds to this serious effect because it is a dark. The image appears dark and serious which is the feelings that most of us share about war, the fact that he was a political war hero helps us link the feelings portrayed in this image with the feeling we have about war. Although he is seen as a hero the image doesn't portray him as such a 'hero' because we would associate lighter and happier images to make the person look inviting but this is not portrayed here at all.

When we look at this photo we are instantly attracted to the different colours and patterns being portrayed in the image. The make up also stands out to us because it is a very extreme make-up look which we would associate with models and magazines. Researching further into this image we find out that this woman is Amanda Lepore, a transgender model. Instantly we understand why the colours are so bright and stand out from other magazine shoots or front covers that we see regularly. I think that the colours are there to show us that she shows her true personality and who she really is even though some people may have different opinions of it. The colours in the image relate to the LGBT community because their symbol is the rainbow and she displays a very colourful image here.