The ontological ‘problem’ with the genre of the portrait, of course, is that no matter how well and intricately a person is photographed, one can truly tell little about their psyche based on exterior appearance alone, at best very partially or reflective of their momentary mood. One can also use the portrait mode to evoke a certain universal mood or as a metaphor for a certain state, as Picasso does in some of his Pink and Blue Period paintings, but this isn’t a portrait in the strong sense, an ontological reflection of a person’s essence. . . Therefore, to make a good one, one must not only be very skilled, sensitive, use the proper equipment (for unfortunately photography is an art heavily dependent on technology), but also creative and insightfully evocative. There are few truly great portraits in the history of photography, and I certainly haven’t contributed one
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