What is Portraiture?

What is Portraiture?
Portraiture is usually a photograph or drawing of a person in 'Portrait', the equivalent of a A4 piece of paper. But before professional photographers came about, the person having the picture taken of themselves was in full control of their picture and would usually say which ones they wanted and which ones they wanted to scrap, but nowadays control lies with the photographer unveiling the subjects personality which Tony Vaccaro loved to find.


Tony Vaccaro 

Tony Vaccaro took pictures of Celebrities but the way he did it was cunning, he would act like the camera was broken and then when the celebrity has dropped the mask of what they themselves wanted to look like, he took the picture. Capturing that persons personality on photo and revealing who they truely are to the world. When his eye spotted something, he would take a picture no matter if the lighting or location wasn't great he would still take the photo.

His photographic career was born in WWII, taking pictures of the true face of the war and the struggle the soldiers faced. Though some of his photos were seen to be faked or set up, most people believed that he was just a natural at capturing the decisive moment.

He took the decisive moment from Henri Cartier Bresson and adapted it to his own photography style, taking famous pictures a soldier just being shot on the battlefield and about to experience death. His photos gave people at home the reality of war and most people were scared of these photos because they gave so much controversy about needing people to know about the war and the people who were outraged that these photos should not be seen.