Thomas Ruff

 

 

I decided to put these images in as research because after our first lesson on portraits this is what i had in my head of what a portrait should look like. However there has been a debate that these arnt portraits. They don't have any feel or atmosphere to them. There basically just passport photos.

'Ruff embarked on a period of research into the history of portraiture and carried out his own experiments with composition and framing. He decided on a style of portrait that would be as neutral as possible, with the aim of emphasising the face of the sitter. Ruff requested that his models try to be expressionless, and each one was photographed wearing their ordinary clothes, against a plain background' - http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition/thomas-ruff/thomas-ruff-portraits

I do however feel that they do give you  a feel of what the person is like because you do see there clothes and i think that you can tell quite a lot of a person on the basis of what they are wearing. So maybe this is something that i could think about in my own portraiture work. Its not always about the facial expression, could be clothes, accessories (as long as its there normal attire, don't want to get too fashion-esq)