Silhouette

I like to give myself a little assignments. Something a little different. Something that isn't strictly necessary on the tours. Something to explore and play with. In the past I've been making panorama stitching, time lapses and of corse my all time favorite; lonely trees (more on that on another blog post). 

Even though I've been making photos with human silhouettes for a number of years. I really started to make them on a regular basis last year.  I find them to be a nice add to the usual portraits that I normally do. 

A good thing is that it's not easy to see who it is on the photo. That leaves more to the imagination of the viewer. The viewers can imagine themselves in the photo. As a trip they want to do in the future or a trip they've done. I'm not much into doing selfies. But as photographers the most patient and understanding model is often ourself. And when I do silhouettes I feel that I can use myself as a model without the photo being about me. 

That leads me to the next question: If you can't recognize the person on the photo, is it still a portrait? 

Or, is it a landscape picture with a person in it? 

The thing is; It can be either or. Let me explain. For me a portrait is not just a photo of a person. It's a contract, it's an activity and it's an arrangement. A portrait is a photo of a person who has agreed with the photographer to be taken a photo of. The main thing that is happening in the photo is that the person is being photographed. The person is in some way posing for the photographer. 

If the photographed person is just looking at the landscape and, a photographer comes along and take a photo of her while she's there, it's not a portrait. Even if the person agrees to have her photo taken. Because the main thing that is happening is her looking at the view. The same thing goes for sports photography. The players at a football match know I'm there taking photos of them. But, the main thing happening is the match. 

So back to the silhouettes, it depends if the person(s) are posing for the photo or not. In most cases they are. Otherwise chances are that they would move on the long exposures that we use for Aurora photos. 

So my definition on what a portrait is, is based more on philosophy than what the actual photo may look like. You may disagree with me. Please do. And let's discuss it around the bonfire on a tour. Or in the comments if you prefer that. 

Photo: Melle Leyten