"The
Soldier Portraits Project...consists of portrait photographs of soldiers of the United States Army, primarily of the 3rd Infantry Division...[t]he photographs are made using the 150 year old collodion wet plate process - the same process that was used to document much of the period (and many of the soldiers) of the Civil War."
[more inside]
posted by cjelli
on Jan 25, 2012 -
9 comments
"They are the earliest painted portraits that have survived; they were painted whilst the Gospels of the New Testament were being written. Why then do they strike us today as being so immediate? Why does their individuality feel like our own? Why is their look more contemporary than any look to be found in the rest of the two millennia of traditional European art which followed them? The
Fayum portraits touch us as if they had been painted last month." The Fayum mummy portraits were painted between the first and third centuries AD, in Roman Egypt, and preserved by the dry Egyptian climate.
Wikimedia Commons. According to
Wikipedia, 900 portraits are known to have survived.
John Bavaro has been creating
modern versions using the Brushes app on the iPhone.
Via the Brushes Gallery on Flickr.
posted by russilwvong
on Jul 18, 2010 -
39 comments
French artist
Anthony Geoffrey makes fantastic celebrity caricatures. The site uses flash and is in French but it loads fast and the navigation is simple. The caricatures are in the Portfolio. I particularly enjoyed his Ash from
Evil Dead and his House MD. These are
not the same as the ones you find in the mall by some poor guy trying to scratch out a living.
[more inside]
posted by bwg
on May 15, 2010 -
11 comments
"
I found him, this little dog in a dumpster down in the projects in the South Side while I was pickin’ up cans. The reason I picked it up is because whenever I see a little child I give it to him."
[more inside]
posted by AzraelBrown
on Jan 11, 2010 -
10 comments
Obama's People [full-screen slideshow]: one photographer; one background; fifty-two members of the incoming US administration. Oh, and one "significant item" per person. The kind of thing -- not just a political piece, but a photographic project -- that reminds you what the institutional clout of the
New York Times can make possible.
posted by holgate
on Jan 14, 2009 -
93 comments
Photographer Zaida Ben-Yusuf (1869-1933) was an important figure in the pictorialist photography movement in late 19th and early 20th century New York. The first woman to embark on building a "gallery of illustrious Americans," Ben-Yusuf attracted to her Fifth Avenue studio many of the most prominent artistic, literary, theatrical and political figures of her day. See the first
exhibit ever on her photography at the
National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC (through Sept. 1), view the
online exhibit or read the
book.
posted by gudrun
on Jun 15, 2008 -
3 comments
In the 17th century Dutch painters began to create informal paintings that focused on the features and/or expressions of anonymous people. These were called tronies. Although a tronie showed a person’s face, it wasn’t considered a portrait. [...] In 1995 Dutch photographer Hendrik Kerstens began a series of tronies featuring his daughter Paula. some images NSFW
posted by xod
on May 22, 2008 -
35 comments
Ever wondered what it is like to have your portrait painted? How would you pose ... "sidelong glance, coy grin, gazing into the distance, serious and stylish"? Here's an
interesting perspective on the subject, describing the process start to finish, written by a sitter, but published on
the website of the painter, together with his added commentary on the process. And how did the subject like his finished portrait?
"In a word, the painting makes me uncomfortable. ... It must be a terrific portrait." (
via)
posted by woodblock100
on Jul 26, 2007 -
11 comments
A Dramatic New Portrait of Leo Sayer "Leo Sayer is ebullient, passionate, and immensely talented. He is the ultimate people person, enthusiastically embracing life. A neighbour of his who is familiar with both my work and Leo's told me that Leo would be the perfect subject for a portrait. So I wrote and asked, it was as simple as that."
Sadly, Tony Johansen's portrait of Leo Sayer didn't win this year's
Archibald Prize. Then again, neither did
this.
posted by Biblio
on Apr 15, 2006 -
19 comments
Cover Art: The Time Collection [Flash] "In 1978
Time Magazine gave to the
National Portrait Gallery some 800 works of original art that had at one time or another appeared on its covers." The gallery has created an online-only exhibition of the covers (the museum is closed for renovation until July 4, 2006). "And while one may normally imagine ornately framed oils of distinguished luminaries when thinking of the NPG, the Time covers offer a much closer to 'street level' survey of the prominent figures of any specific period."
[via CSM]
posted by clgregor
on Dec 14, 2005 -
7 comments
Wrestling with Diane Arbus "She set up no lights, just pulled out her Rolleiflex, which was half as big as she was, checked the aperture and the exposure, and tested the flash. Then she asked me to lie on the bed, flat on my back on the shabby counterpane.
I did as I was told. Clutching the camera she climbed on to the bed and straddled me, moving up until she was kneeling with a knee on both sides of my chest. She held the Rolleiflex at waist height with the lens right in my face. She bent her head to look through the viewfinder on top of the camera, and waited".
posted by matteo
on Oct 8, 2005 -
25 comments
British Portrait Miniatures at the V & A. 'These pages developed to compliment the Miniatures Gallery tell the story of the portrait miniature in Britain, from its first appearance in the 1520s, at the court of Henry VIII, to the height of its popularity in the early 19th century.'
posted by plep
on Mar 2, 2005 -
5 comments
Is this the face of William Shakepeare? Only two likenesses of Shakespeare are considered to be genuine; both were created when he was in his final years, or after his death. On Friday the
Globe and Mail reported that an anonymous engineer in a mid-sized Ontario city has a painting, handed down through twelve generations, of Shakespeare at the height of his career. It may be the only portrait painted of Shakespeare in his lifetime.
Family lore states that it was painted by John Sanders, reputedly a bit actor in the same theatrical company as Shakespeare who also did such jobs as painting scene sets.
posted by tranquileye
on May 12, 2001 -
9 comments
