Studies of my son

[Nigel Allan]

Last week in Crete I shot a few studies of my son, Marcus who is 14. Here are just 4 of them which I feel have a passing resemblance to the style of Bruce Webber.

Nigel Allan: Marcus, August 2010, Crete - 1


Nigel Allan: Marcus, August 2010, Crete - 2


Nigel Allan: Marcus, August 2010, Crete - 3


Nigel Allan: Marcus, August 2010, Crete - 4

[Ken Tanaka]

Well done, Nigel. The first three are of a consistent style and are beautiful. They'll be wonderful keepsakes.

The fourth image breaks its own path, and not just because it's color. That head-on confrontational expression suggests contemporary Dutch portraiture styles. I think I'd like to have a less closely-cropped version of that, at least down to just below the shoulders or even a full-body.

[Asher Kelman]

Originally Posted by Ken Tanaka

The fourth image breaks its own path, and not just because it's color. That head-on confrontational expression suggests contemporary Dutch portraiture styles.

Always good to have your hints of goodies elsewhere. Any link for us?

Asher

[Nigel Allan]

Originally Posted by Ken Tanaka

Well done, Nigel. The first three are of a consistent style and are beautiful. They'll be wonderful keepsakes.

The fourth image breaks its own path, and not just because it's color. That head-on confrontational expression suggests contemporary Dutch portraiture styles. I think I'd like to have a less closely-cropped version of that, at least down to just below the shoulders or even a full-body.

Thank you for the kind words, Ken.

I shot several more in a similar style but felt I wanted to depart from it in these examples and show something a little different and even though the colour is desaturated his red lips are not fake - that is their real shade. It still has some of the 'Bruce Webber' feel about it. Here are four more from that short burst.

Nigel Allan: Marcus, August 2010, Crete - 5


Nigel Allan: Marcus, August 2010, Crete - 6


Nigel Allan: Marcus, August 2010, Crete - 7


Nigel Allan: Marcus, August 2010, Crete - 8

[Ken Tanaka]

Originally Posted by Asher Kelman

Always good to have your hints of goodies elsewhere. Any link for us?

Asher

Rineke Dijkstra's work is one good example.

[Asher Kelman]

Originally Posted by Ken Tanaka

Rineke Dijkstra's work is one good example.

Thanks Ken for this great link. It's fresh to see one who is able to do what August Sandler did, very confrontational pictures, but in her own way. Whereas Sandler had his tradesmen and higher society folk dress up, posing formally in the finest and shoot against real or simple created backgrounds, Rineke Dijksra appears to reveal her subjects as they naturally are against almost surreal simple natural backgrounds. I always thought that Sandler was so objective. Now I give that title far quicker to Dijkstra's work.

I think that mentioning work like this is apt for a critique of Nigel's fine pictures of his son. Great connection you made here!

Asher

[Asher Kelman]

Originally Posted by Nigel Allan

Thank you for the kind words, Ken.

I shot several more in a similar style but felt I wanted to depart from it in these examples and show something a little different and even though the colour is desaturated his red lips are not fake - that is their real shade. It still has some of the 'Bruce Webber' feel about it. Here are four more from that short burst.

Nigel Allan: Marcus, August 2010, Crete - 5


Nigel Allan: Marcus, August 2010, Crete - 6


Nigel Allan: Marcus, August 2010, Crete - 7


Nigel Allan: Marcus, August 2010, Crete - 8

Nigel,

It's funny that you are on Crete and instead of giving us pictures of the buildings of all the conquerors, you take pictures of your own son who could have been snapped on Brighton pier or Bournmouth, at far less cost! But what you have delivered is worth so much more than just summer snap shots. I find these pictures to be timeless. The appear to work together, so we do not just see Marcus, rather we feel we know him and he is a lot of youth that is long behind us and ahead of of our grandchildren. Here is a boy with good humor, poise and patience. This is ideal youth, happy, responsible and not harmed. You are lucky he stopped long enough for you to to pull this off!

Would you have gotten as good pictures by the White Cliffs of Dover instead of Crete? Perhaps not. It could well be that the distance from home increases the already strong bonding between father and son and that what you have here.

I must say that this is one of the best portrait series of a young man I have seen in a long time.

Asher

[Nigel Allan]

Originally Posted by Asher Kelman

Nigel,

It's funny that you are on Crete and instead of giving us pictures of the buildings of all the conquerors, you take pictures of your own son who could have been snapped on Brighton pier or Bournmouth, at far less cost! But what you have delivered is worth so much more than just summer snap shots. I find these pictures to be timeless. The appear to work together, so we do not just see Marcus, rather we feel we know him and he is a lot of youth that is long behind us and ahead of of our grandchildren. Here is a boy with good humor, poise and patience. This is ideal youth, happy, responsible and not harmed. You are lucky he stopped long enough for you to to pull this off!

Would you have gotten as good pictures by the White Cliffs of Dover instead of Crete? Perhaps not. It could well be that the distance from home increases the already strong bonding between father and son and that what you have here.

I must say that this is one of the best portrait series of a young man I have seen in a long time.

Asher

Firstly, Asher and Ken, as usual I appreciate your kind and encouraging words and graciousness.

What I have attempted to capture here is etheric and ephemeral (suitable adjectives coming from a recent holiday in ancient Greece). Yes of course you can take identical pictures elsewhere if you judge them by all the mechanistic, physical parameters of a photograph such as light, tone, contrast, focus, sharpness, and even composition, but what I have tried to convey here is mood. To me this is the hidden element in these shots which may not have been reproduced under other conditions or locations.

It is almost the ghost in the machine that breathes life into the pixels. Your observation rather elegantly ties in the subject matter of the pictures and their location in Crete, the seat of the Minoan civilisation and the home of the Minotaur, with the Theseus Paradox.

If you replace all the component parts, is it still the same ship? The same might be said of a photograph