Jeff Portrait | Vancouver Photographer

“A true portrait should, today and a hundred years from today, be the Testimony of how this person looked and what kind of human being he was.”
-Philippe Halsman

Timelessness.

There are certain things photographers care about that no one else in the world will ever care about as long as they live. In fact, most people will never realize there was actually something to care about in the first place. This is probably true with everyone and their passions. They are the things that people, nit-pick over, obsess about, ‘nerd out’ on.

And photographers are infamous for this. But I think I have an idea as to why this might be. I was reading some photography book last night and the author pointed out that throughout history, specifically the ‘Enlightenment’ era, Science and Art had a very special relationship, and it’s true. In fact, there was a time before Modernity when the different disciplines did not compete against each other, but rather harmonized with each other. There was not the same sort of compartmentalization that we see today.

It was a Big Tent back then…

But I digress. The author said that Photography was finally the discipline that married both Science and Art.

That was a light bulb moment for me. Photography is really as much a Science as it is an Art. Photographer’s are Scientists of a sort. Experimenting, documenting, manipulating, hypothesizing, etc. Dont you think a Dark Room is really much more like a Laboratory than an Art Studio? Think about it.

Where am I going with this….

RIGHT! The things that bother Photographers. Well, lets just say the things that bother me. I’ll keep it general.

Like in music, fashion, and everything else really, photography has ‘Fads’. Thing that are cool today, but even lamer tomorrow. Like I said, most normal people probably wouldn’t even be able to recognize what a photography Fad would be, but rest assured, they are real, and they are out there. (Think 80’s Glamor Portrait… really cool in the 80’s….not so cool anymore).

Classic portraits are Timeless. They have a lasting quality to them. They no not buckle under the pressures of current trends. Now, that’s not to say they are not influenced by them, just that they are not the point of the picture. They are the seasoning of the image. Just like a good soup does not taste like salt, but rather the salt does make a soup taste good.