RE: Newman and Sieff Books (was: Re: PUG - Definition of Portrait ?)
Concerning his newly acquired Sieff book, Cotty wrote: My luck was in: on her return, she presented me with a brand new copy! Called 'Faites Comme si Je n'Etais pas La' (trans: 'Make as if I'm not here' - M. Sieff's favourite assurance to sitters) [Snip] Great Scott, Cotty! That's not only an excellent title for a book, but a perfect quotation to use as a signature file for e-mails to upper management, when one is feeling in a particularly devilish mood! ;-) (Provided upper management only speaks bureaucratese, and not French) Cheers! Bill Peifer Rochester, NY - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
RE: Newman and Sieff Books (was: Re: PUG - Definition of Portrait ?)
Concerning his newly acquired Sieff book, Cotty wrote: My luck was in: on her return, she presented me with a brand new copy! Called 'Faites Comme si Je n'Etais pas La' (trans: 'Make as if I'm not here' - M. Sieff's favourite assurance to sitters) [Snip] Great Scott, Cotty! That's not only an excellent title for a book, but a perfect quotation to use as a signature file for e-mails to upper management, when one is feeling in a particularly devilish mood! ;-) (Provided upper management only speaks bureaucratese, and not French) LOL. Nice one Bill. Actually my sigs to my own managers go something like this: -- - Kind regards, That tall bloke in the background you've never met but shat on many times... -- LOL, Cotty ___ Personal email traffic to [EMAIL PROTECTED] MacAds traffic to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Check out the UK Macintosh ads http://www.macads.co.uk - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
Re: PUG - Definition of Portrait?
Oh crap. I forgot the PUG deadline is nearly here and I meant to shoot something for this one. I guess I'll dig out a golden oldie. I don't think there's a formal definition and you know the Pugsters they will surprise you every time. Evan Dave Kennedy wrote: I vaguely remember a discussion on this a while ago, but I do not recall the outcome. Is there any formal definition of Portrait in terms of the PUG? Is it specifically related to breathing beings (people, animals)? Can a still life be defined as a portrait? Flowers/plants? Looking for something to scan b4 next monday dk = Wishing I was playing with my Pentax : PZ-1 MZ-10 Dave Kennedy Arnprior, Ont. Canada. LAUNCH - Your Yahoo! Music Experience http://launch.yahoo.com -- -- - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
Re: PUG - Definition of Portrait?
Well, as always your right, Bad in appearance but good for sending a message and portraying some insite about the person. Actually they do make good portraits after all. --- Shel Belinkoff [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Bad? In what sense. Would you not say that a mug shot captures more than just a likeness of the person? It puts him or her into a context, reflects something or some things about their character and personality, and perhaps provides a little insight into their soul and psyche. Isn't that what a good portrait is supposed to do? Brendan wrote: Apparantly yes it is, just a very bad one. --- Shel Belinkoff [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Then is a police mug shot a portrait? -- Shel Belinkoff mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org . __ Find, Connect, Date! http://personals.yahoo.ca - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
Re: PUG - Definition of Portrait?
Frankly, I think a portrait goes a little deeper than that. Elliott Erwitt's famous portrait of Pablo Casals, taken without the maestro present, is an example that comes to mind. In this photograph there is no likeness of Casals, yet by photographing his cello and bow, resting on a chair in the room in which Casals often played, and by taking full advantage of light and shadow, we are able to see and feel the context in which Casals exists, and thereby get some sense of the man. Is this any less of a portrait than a head-and-shoulders shot of the great cellist. The point of a portrait is, I think, to show us something about the person, to reach beyond a reproduction of a face or form, and allow the viewer to get some sense of the subject. The famous photo of a Texas death row inmate's hands through the bars of his cell reflects more about the man behind the bars, his environment and condition, than might have been captured with a more traditional portrait. Does one really need to see a likeness of a person in order to know something about that person? Cotty wrote: FWIW, my Pocket Oxford Dictionary describes 'portrait' as: 'painted, drawn, or photographic likeness of person or animal...' -- Shel Belinkoff mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://home.earthlink.net/~belinkoff/ When a man's best friend is his dog, that dog has a problem. --Edward Abbey - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
Re: PUG - Definition of Portrait?
Here we go again. I hope that nobody starts discussing what makes a portrait professional somewhere along the line or this thread will never end. Bob - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
Re: PUG - Definition of Portrait?
On Tue, 14 May 2002, Robert Harris wrote: Here we go again. I hope that nobody starts discussing what makes a portrait professional somewhere along the line or this thread will never end. That's easy. It's the camera. ;) chris - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
Re: PUG - Definition of Portrait?
I vaguely remember a discussion on this a while ago, but I do not recall the outcome. Is there any formal definition of Portrait in terms of the PUG? Is it specifically related to breathing beings (people, animals)? Can a still life be defined as a portrait? Flowers/plants? If the flower smiles at you, yes. Cheers, Andre -- - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
Newman and Sieff Books (was: Re: PUG - Definition of Portrait?)
The Norwegian Museum of Photography opened a portraits exhibition on May 5th. Featuring 25 Arnold Newman portraits, among many others. Jostein, cool! I just bought my second Arnold Newman book, entitled appropriately enough: 'Arnold Newman' by Taschen, 2000 (ISBN 3-8228-7193-1), a HUGE book with 274 pages of lovely monochrome and colour reproduction. It features a complete retrospective of his work from across the years. One of my heroes. I'd love to go to an exhibition of his. As an aside, my SO went to Paris on the train with a girlfriend for 4 days (well, you have to let them out now and again...) and she brought me a fantastic present. I knew that my all time greatest photo-hero, Jeanloup Sieff (pronounced Seff, short 'a') had a book out (posthumously, he sadly died in 1999), but it hasn't been translated into English, and so is only available in France. I didn't ask my SO to look for it, because she was there to do galleries and les musees, so I thought it unfair to have her trudging about looking for something she might not find. Alas, my luck was in: on her return, she presented me with a brand new copy! Called 'Faites Comme si Je n'Etais pas La' (trans: 'Make as if I'm not here' - M. Sieff's favourite assurance to sitters), it is a lovely retrospective, complete with recounts by the author on his encounters with many and varied sitters over the years. Highly recommended. ISBN 2-7324-2518-4 by Editions de La Martiniere (2000). Amazon France have it: http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2732425184/qid%3D1010360395/171-67256 80-9621052 Meanwhile, hopefully it will make it to other languages. His work is brilliant. Best, Cotty ___ Personal email traffic to [EMAIL PROTECTED] MacAds traffic to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Check out the UK Macintosh ads http://www.macads.co.uk - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
Re: PUG - Definition of Portrait?
Then is a police mug shot a portrait? Of course. ___ Personal email traffic to [EMAIL PROTECTED] MacAds traffic to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Check out the UK Macintosh ads http://www.macads.co.uk - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
Re: PUG - Definition of Portrait?
Does one really need to see a likeness of a person in order to know something about that person? I don't believe so. Your recounting of the cellist scenario illustrates this point well. However, to be pedantic, the definition (in internationally accepted terms) is as previously stated. It's how we each individually (and also as a group) interpret that definition that forms our opinions in the manner that we do. A photograph of a bow and a cello may well be described as a portrait, and there will be those that understand this, and those that don't. A traditionalist will perhaps challenge the example, offering only that there is no person present in the image, and so (by accepted standard definition) cannot be a portrait. Those of us with perhaps a wider, lateral rather than literal expectation of the definition (in fact *any* definition) will interpret accordingly, and react accordingly. IMO, there is no right and no wrong human interpretation of what a portrait is, or is not. There is only an internationally accepted lingual standard that happens to say that the likeness of a person or animal needs to be present in the image for it to be called a portrait. It's all a load of bollocks anyway. Rules are there to be broken. I tend to sit with the traditionalists, but like most people, I love the renegade. Doubtless we'll cheer the shot of the bow and the cello, if it appears, in any guise. As Frantisek often writes: 'Good light' Cotty ___ Personal email traffic to [EMAIL PROTECTED] MacAds traffic to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Check out the UK Macintosh ads http://www.macads.co.uk - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
Re: PUG - Definition of Portrait?
Chris Brogden wrote: On Tue, 14 May 2002, Robert Harris wrote: Here we go again. I hope that nobody starts discussing what makes a portrait professional somewhere along the line or this thread will never end. That's easy. It's the camera. But what makes the camera professional? Seems to me we never definitively resolved that. Or did we... :) Bob - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
