Scottish National Gallery
(in front of a large Chisholm canvas)
To portray John Byrne and Tilda Swinton standing in front of a bland cafe counter seemed somehow inadequate, so, in the best traditions of portraiture, they have been encouraged to pose for me, virtually, in some more congenial surroundings.
Milne's Court steps grafitti
Scottish National Portrait Gallery library
(in front of scary dead white men)
4 comments:
Ha! Proof that you've encountered celebrity, and captured it for posterity. But in this day and age of PS composites, alternative facts, and fake news, why should I believe any of your portraits to be true? Perhaps the original, the least "artful," is the most truthful? It's a celebrity sighting - with permissions granted. Nonetheless, I like your fakes. Whichever ones they are.
Kent,
"Truth" in photography versus "truth" in portraiture versus "truth" in general... Let's not go there...
A little cropping, a little [redacted -- secret sauces]... The one in the previous post is the "original" RAW image file, as processed by me, first into a [nearly] full-size TIF, then into a web-sized JPG. All of these versions are "toy theatre" productions, with different backdrops and slightly different lighting. And yet somehow "truer" in the broader sense of portraiture... (Oops, said I wasn't going to go there!). My personal favourite is them standing in front of the first photo from the previous post, rendered as a large oil painting...
Mike
Oh, I was merely trying to poke you with a stick to see what kind of reaction I could get with the provocative (but not very obvious) suggestion that perhaps all four of your pictures of John Byrne and Tilda Swinton are "fakes" and composites. For all we know, your “original” is a series of bundled together pieces found out there in the public domain, special sauces applied judiciously.
Alas, what has come over me, to be one crying “Fake news!”? But it’s going to become more of a problem as the technology becomes more ubiquitous, and the neural networks ever more powerful.
Personally, I prefer the version of them in front of the tagged doorway.
Kent,
I hear you, but, as I say, the "truth of photography in the digital age" is not a subject that bothers me as much as it seems to bother some. The truth of art has always resided in the veracity of its lies! I hear that Elizabeth I never *actually* had a dress embroidered with eyes and ears, and (as far as anyone knows) certainly didn't have a pet rainbow... Though it's nice to think she did (see "rainbow portrait").
Mike
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