Chris

This is Chris. The 26th person in order from my 100 portraits project. Poor Chris from memory deserved some praise for showing up to meet me for photographs on a weekend morning considering that he had had a lively night beforehand leaving him the worse for wear; very game indeed considering I took 140-or-so exposures. Again on looking afresh, I would probably have chosen one of these 2 as my first choice; this leads me to wonder if my eye or taste in portraits has changed in some way? This first one breaks one of the generally safe portrait rules, “have your subject looking into the landscape format photograph, not out to one side”. The amphitheatre seating acts as a set of leading lines to Chris’s face and once your eye arrives there, that is all you look at. The rules are only guidelines, so it is great to break them from time to time, even better to analyse why the pictures work. Anyway, I love these and simply couldn’t choose just one as intended: sorry!

This one is just perfect. The background is vibrant and exciting. Chris is clearly separated from it and it feels 3-dimensional which can be difficult when a subject is close to a wall behind. His pose, (probably candid to some extent as I don’t often like asking people to pose), provides another leading line to his face.