Portraits of Them

I had to make a micro project in portraiture in order to present the key figures of the Old Salmiya book as they should be. To achieve that I previously gathered some information about them. One of them actually is already a part of my social network.

Principles:

1- Characteristic revelation. Show attitude. Make them pose. Use relating objects to set a meaningful composition and more interest.

2- Not all portraits need a smile.

3- Texture is a major part of a subject physical features.

4-Colour ‘may’ distract reader observation of the main subject (a person’s soul).

Influence

Yousuf Karsh is a the master of portrait photography. His work is known with simplicity. He’s marked by his ability of showing a person’s unique characteristics. I noticed many times that he includes the movement of hands as one of the main parts in his compositions.

I ,additionally, noted his ability to make people who do not have a relationship with modeling to act as it deems appropriate to serve the goal of his work and feel secured in front of his camera.

I don’t have his equipments nor his experience but this micro project is an attempt to convey character and / or a job in my images. It is also to learn how to deal with people I’ve never met before or hadn’t have the chance to take this type of portrait of them.

Book Characters

The Artist, the Researcher, the Citizen, the Resident and the Merchant are roles and occupations of all embodied in this book. A chain of characters will talk about the social and cultural history of old Salmiya in the post-oil period from their experience and share their point of view about the current circumstances.

Farah Al Nakib, PhD candidate in History. The School of Oriental and African Studies, London.

Farah: Intellectual lady who lives in a contemporary style department.

Her name (Farah) means Joy. Like her name this lady has always find it difficult to hide her smile. That’s what I realised when I first met her last year before the photography session. Her look tells that she’s always engaged with her books.

First time I showed this photograph to my personal tutor her noticed that her blouse colour is exactly the same as the office lamp.

which confirm that colours distract readers from concentrating on the main object.

I found out that using black and white has minimized the appearance of the clutter at the background.

Rolf K. Habig, Managing Director & Partner. Internation Optique Company W.L.L, Kuwait

Habig: the second attempt: The man was very cooperative during the photo session at his home. I did not want to take so much time to photograph him due to his health condition as he had recently conducted an operation.

I previously asked about him, people told me that he’s characterized by wearing light fabrics. He follows him self not the latest fashion designs. For this, When he asked me ‘what to wear’ during the photography session I told him just be yourself. He, furthermore, has a deep vision regarding the choice of glasses whatever the price is. Someone told me that he could give you the appropriate glasses from the first choice.

That is the reason why I decided to include his hand in the image making of his character. I asked him to hold the glasses with one finger to convey his professional skill of choosing a glasses. I toke the photograph from a lower level of his face to communicate his deep vision by making him looking right through the reader’s eye. My only with is to find a darker background to add contrast.

Ledia Al-Qattan, Fine Artist – Writer

Ledia: the pioneer artist is very well known of her massive artistic work of her house. She uses broken mirrors to create her artwork. Simply, she covers her house with mirrors. Her house ‘the house of mirrors’ is now a museum that contains all her work and the work of her husband the late Kuwaiti artist ‘Khalifa Al-Qattan’. She has an optimistic personality as she has always been telling me that ‘She Came out of the Universe’.

This work is a statement to her form and her concept of ‘coming out of the universe’. The background is one of her large artwork. The ground as you see is made of broken mirrors.

Foad A. Al-Mogahwi, Journalistic Writer-Historian

Ahmed: It wasn’t difficult at all to deal with his personality. We (me and my photographer companion ) had literally made an extreme makeover to his office in order to photo shoot him. I was surprised by his quick ability to evoke his attitude in his pose. I told him: ‘ You are quite person and serious person in your business and you absorb books !

Unfortunately, I forget the gift that he promised me. He wanted to dedicate an old picture of the old Salmiya in its golden days to add it to my book. Due to time constraints, I couldn’t go back again to take the picture.

Criteria

1- Colours in portraits may push the leader to concentrate on clothes and backgrounds rather than a person’s spirit.

2- Black&white can help in fading the clutter at the background of a subject.

3- A successful portrait must show at least one personal feature of a subject (work, attitude, texture..etc)

4-There is a thin line between artistic portrait and documentary. I can’t go crazy with posing and composition. Simplicity in composition and realistic posing evenly work in creating a documentary style of portraiture.