Features Images That Speak Portraits, Landscapes and Visions of Vietnam Adding a Little Color with Adobe Photoshop Profile: Giorgio Karayiannis Rf Cookbook Amy Cantrell: A Career in Evolution Profile: Nancy Rica Schiff Generation Next Profile: Ed Lilley Ron Nichols David LaClaire: Classic Portraiture Quizzical Eye Bruce Hudson: The Relationographer Ray Bidegain A Thumbnail Approach to Lighting and Posing Columns Insight/ On the Cover First Exposure: Epson Stylus Pro 4000 Lab Profile: Full Color, Inc. Digital Photography First Exposure: Canon EOS 1D Mark II First Exposure: Ulead Photo Impact Field Test: Wacom Cintiq 15X Tablet Departments Problems & Solutions Industry News New Products The Last Word Archives

Rangefinder Magazine
July 2004

Insight/ On the Cover by Bill Hurter

Not long ago, wedding photography underwent a cultural revolution, transitioning from the posed and scripted coverage of yesterday to the free-form, fine art, journalistic treatments that are thriving today. In a less dramatic and confrontational way, conventional portraiture has been undergoing similar changes in recent years. While nearly everyone agrees that the principles of formal lighting and posing are worth preserving in contemporary portraiture, a like number of people see their customers rapidly moving away from such traditions. The contemporary portrait photographer may not even call himself a portrait photographer. Take Australia’s Giorgio Karayiannis (page 26), for example, who calls himself a “lifestyle photographer.” His portraits may not even show the subject’s face. One of his recognizeable images, “Imam,” a portrait of a holy man, shows only the man’s robes and top of his head, yet it evokes as much about the character of the spiritual leader as any conventional portrait could.

Also like in today’s wedding photography, editorial skills have found their way into the contemporary portraitist’s arsenal of tools. Peter Steinhauer, in “Portraits, Landscapes and Visions of Vietnam,” (page 14) uses dramatic, high lighting ratio portraits to redefine a country of great cultural wealth. Nancy Rica Schiff (page 44) is fascinated by twins, odd jobs and octagenarians (not necessarily in that order) and has published books about each topic. Nancy’s whole photographic style changes with each different group of people she photographs, allowing the subjects to dictate their own appearance. Tim Walden (page 8) is a fantastic craftsman, skilled in the traditional techniques, yet he believes that portraits should “speak”—that they should convey profound and honest emotion. So he has redefined his portrait technique to allow for this emotional release. Amy Cantrell (page 38) started out photographing bands, and now transfers those skills to her unique style of editorial portraiture. Ed Lilley (page 60), William and Leslie McIntosh (page 52) Ron Nichols (page 82), David LaClaire (page 86), Rondal Partridge—the son of Imogen Cunningham (page 90), Bruce Hudson ( page 96) and Ray Bidegain (page 100) are a few of the other fine portrait photographers featured in this special issue.

PHOTOGRAPHER: Gene Martin
SUBJECT: Dizzy Gillespie
Camera: Hasselblad 500 ELX
lens: 150mm
FILM: Kodak Ektachrome EPN 100
Lighting: Speedotron pack and 24x36-inch Photoflex softbox to the right of Dizzy. Hair light: Speedotron 102 head with 10° grid; background light: Speedotron 102 head with 3° grid. Gene employed a second diffuser on the softbox, a lighting trick that also warms the light source. He has been known to use up to four diffusers on the softbox.
Background: Neutral gray seamless. A purple gel was used on the background light per the Dean Collins Chromazones lighting system.
COMMENTS: Trumpet great Dizzy Gillespie holding a an eight-valve toy horn. Gene’s idea was to photograph him with something very unusual and out of character—a trick he uses to get his subjects to divulge some of their personality traits. As Gene tells it, “I came running into the studio holding this toy horn, gave it to Dizzy, and said, ‘Play this.’” The scowl is a result of that request. Gene replied, “It’s a joke!” and the second shot was a huge smile with Dizzy holding the trumpet in the air. For more information on Gene Martin and his fantastic images of jazz greats, visit: genemartinphotography.com/.