Ephemeral, always changing, portraits are all about capturing a person or persons in a precise moment of time. Portraits were once only about facial expressions, but creative photographers look for much more than that now such as personality or mood. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but pictures can lie. They can be staged. Masters of portrait photography build their picture down to the tiniest detail to relay that moment of time to viewers. Here are 13 creative portraits and 12 portraiture photographers.
Firestarter by David Roth
(image credit:issuu)
Photographer David Roth captured this image. His focus was on the little girl’s face, her expression, and her eyes tell a story. He did not, however, get stuck in the middle of the frame. His subject is not centered. The unfocused background shouts important details. In this case, he labeled the picture Firestarter. She’s just an innocent bystander. Or is she?
Traditional VS Non-traditional
(image credits:V.I.P.,Luster Studios)
Weddings and engagements are an important time to record the moment. Some photographers like from V.I.P. use more traditional means to capture what the subject wants remembered, the dress, the moment, the play of light. In creative portraits, the photographer can think out of the box. If a couple particularly enjoys a certain setting like the woods, then photographers from Luster Studios record the moment there. Portraits can be as varied as the people in the pictures.
Creative Portrait
(image credit:Wedding Photojournalist Association)
Some portraits are stunning due to the creative photographer changing the the angle of attack and the setting for a shot. This unique portrait of a Mexican wedding by Sol Tamargo clearly considers what the photograph says. The wedding couple has an affinity for doing things differently and a great love for the water. What the photo says is even more important than the picture itself.
Boudoir Photos — Annie Leibowitz
(image credit:Lost At Eminor)
Annie Leibowitz is famous for her creative portraits which show a close collaboration between her subjects and her ability to capture the moment. In this case, Johnny Depp and his wife will forever have this image of intimacy recorded. The visual interest here is less on the background settings than the subjects, however the sparse background speaks volumes in this scene. Leibowitz’s claim to fame comes about by her selecting subjects to photograph who “Open their hearts and souls and lives to you.”
Valley of Regret
(image credit:Leah Johnston)
When an image so perfectly captures an emotion, this is great creative photography. In this case, Leah Johnston uses her photos as an illustration to her poetic verse. This portrait is titled Valley of Regret. She has assembled a collection of her uniquely stirring photographs and touching poems on Flickr.
Fairy Tales Do Come True
(image credit:abc news)
A true versatile master of photography, Annie Leibovitz got her start at Rolling Stone. She has been commissioned by hundreds to tell their tale through a portrait. She snapped this shot for Disney to celebrate their famous fairy tales. The play of light upon the glass slipper and the background setting need no written words to evoke a memory of Cinderella.
Drama
(image credits:ferenc bizSimon Green Photography)
Drama has been captured on film for more than a hundred years. There are times when the picture mixes a lighthearted jest with a more serious meaning. Photographer Alicia Nicole gives us humor with the mustache about a sometimes serious subject of a woman surviving in a business world. Commercial Advertising Photographer Simon Green paints a vivid image with his camera of this princess dressed in red but resting as if dead upon the rocks.
Individual
(image credit:Pippin Design,Dreamtime Studio)
Photographers use their creativity to show their subject’s individuality. Julie Pippin snapped this shot of her subject in the ocean. Many women might not choose this, but many would love to display their individuality in this way. Advertising Fashion Photographer Shane was inspired to take this portrait to not only show off the black gloves but to also illustrate her own individuality, talent and artistic ability.
Fantasy
(image credit:Nina Pak)
Nina Pak takes fantasy portraits that embrace symbolism yet likes to keep an element of mystery in her work. Instead of depending upon the background, she pulls texture into the picture along with the subject. Since a portrait is about the subject, she zooms in and fills the frame with all the emphasis on her subject.
Photojournalism Portraits
(image credit:Iris Photography)
Lead photographer for Iris, Jane Shauck, is a world-class photojournalist. She takes series of portraits to record more than a moment, but the entire event such as a wedding. In classic style, she focuses in this picture on the subject’s face, her hands, and her expression while the background is unfocused yet important enough to not completely center the subject in the frame. The element of enigma remains while the story, the photograph, tells the event like daguerreotypes of old have since 1839.
Fine Art Photography: Work of 24 Famous Photographers
When a picture matches the creative vision of an artist taking the shot, the photograph is considered fine art. Here is the work of 24 famous photographers.
Illustrators have an incredible power to bring stories, concepts and brands to vivid life through visuals that grab the viewer’s attention and convey emotion or elucidate a technical subject. These 15 artists working in editorial illustration, comic books, video games and advertising are especially adept at using their remarkable creativity to bring ideas into sharp focus through a variety of artistic media.
James Jean
(images via: Graphic Exchange)
Taiwanese-UKn illustrator and artist James Jean rose to fame as a cover artist for DC Comics, winning many awards including seven Eisner awards. He is best known for the many acclaimed cover illustrations he created for comic book series Fables but his clients also include The New York Times, Time Magazine, Rolling Stone, Spin and Playboy. Jean currently has four published collections of his works including Process Recess volumes 1 and 2, which show his illustration process including the original drawings.
Will Murai
(images via WillMurai.com)
Brazilian illustrator and comic book colorist Will Murai has worked with W/Brasil, Marvel Comics, DC Comics and Dynamite Entertainment among many other clients. Murai starts with sketches, concepts, <a href="http://En Derin.com/officedesign”>studies and textures created using traditional art materials and methods and then completes the painting and coloration process digitally using software like Adobe Illustrator and Corel Painter.
Linn Olofsdotter
(images via: Olofsdotter.com)
The works of Swedish mixed media artist Linn Olofsdotter are richly textured and layered, using digital software to create a collage-like effect. Now settled in Portland, Olofsdotter has accumulated a varied portfolio creating works for MTV, Bon Magazine, Spin Mag, La Perla and Levi’s.
Brian Despain
(images via DespainArt.com)
Brian Despain is a painter and illustrator who has worked with industry giants like game publishing companies TSR and Wizards of the Coast. Even the work that Despain does for pleasure tells a story, and his oil paintings reveal a vast imaginary landscape populated with fascinating creatures like robots and walking fish.
Owen Freeman
(images via: OwenFreeman.com)
Whether depicting grisly unsolved Los Angeles murders or capturing the sinister side of Chinatown, illustrator Owen Freeman’s work often has a dark and mysterious feel to it that makes him sought after by publications like LA Weekly and FHM. His illustrations have been featured in UKn Illustration 27, Novum, CMYK, and CQ.
Sam Weber
(images via: SamPaints.com)
Vampires, creepy hyenas, Shakespearean heroines and wood nymphs: Sam Weber brings them all to life using watercolor, acrylic paint, ink and computer software. Most of Weber’s imagery is interpretations of text or narratives, and his illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic and many other publications.
Jinyoung Shin
(images via: Daedally.net)
New York-based Korean artist Jinyoung Shin’s illustrations are clearly influenced by Japanese Manga, but her hauntingly skeletal figures combined with brooding colors and surreal imagery are all her own. Shin, who has a master’s degree in computer art from New York’s School of Visual Arts, starts her drawings in pencil and uses digital software to color them.
Joy Ang
(images via: JoyAng.ca)
23-year-old graduate of Alberta College of Art & Design Joy Ang already has an impressive roster of clients under her belt including Marvel, Capcom, Nokia, BioWare an Udon Comics. Her expressive illustrations are crisp yet luminous and packed with emotion, qualities that can be rare among digital artwork.
Sebastián Murra Ramirez
(image via: Mu-Illustration.com)
This Colombian-born, Barcelona-based artist primarily works in graphic and motion design but has created a compelling series of abstract illustrations meant to convey emotions like passion, love, aggression and joy. Of his work, Ramirez – known as Mu – says, “For me each illustration has its meaning but everyone can have his own interpretation. Eventually through abstraction the illustration becomes yours because of the input you make out of it.”
Michael Kutsche
(images via: MisterMK.de)
Award-winning German conceptual artist, character designer and illustrator Michael Kutsche has worked in the visual effects industry since 1998 and just finished work on Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland”. His clients include Sony Imageworks, Marvel Studios, SEGA and The Creative Assembly.
Andrey Gordeev
(images via: Behance)
Russian illustrator Andrey Gordeev has a humorous, colorful style that lends itself well to subjects like animal sex and “Around the world in twelve months”, a series created for the corporate calendar of a truck trading company.
Phil Dunne
(images via: LovetheRobot.com)
Phil Dunne is an illustrator from Dublin, Ireland who has worked with clients like Sony Playstation, The Financial Times and Barry’s Tea. His creative process, as explained to Abduzeedo, starts with a pencil drawing and various digital images which are combined in Adobe Photoshop, adjusted and colored.
Zach Johnsen
(images via: zenvironments.com)
Zacharia Johnsen uses his signature sketchy ink-and-watercolor style and dark sense of aesthetics to create original artwork for print and publications, skateboards, skis, furniture and apparel. His clients include MTV, ESPN Xgames, K2 Snowboards and Ecko. He also owns a t-shirt company called Tank Theory for which he creates designs, often collaborating with other artists.
Florian Nicolle
(images via: Behance)
Florian Nicolle, known as Neo, is a young French illustrator whose work often combines monochromatic drawings with text in beautifully written script. This up-and-coming artist, who recently moved to Paris to focus on illustration, says of his style, “I draw a picture as if I wrote a text, with the same tool, the same freedom, with erasures, lines, scribbles -what is written does not matter.”
Mario Zucca
(images via: MarioZucca.com)
Mario Zucca is an artist working in editorial illustration, book illustration, packaging and advertising and his clients include The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and UKn Medical News. His work is crisp, colorful and humorous.
In an interview, he told ImageKind, “Humor is extremely important to me. There’s no bigger travesty than when someone takes themselves too seriously. I think it was Mark Rothko who said something to the effect of, and I’m totally paraphrasing here, ‘If you don’t break down and cry in front of one of my paintings, then you’re missing the point.’ It’s statements like that that make me want to barf.”
