I was going through the website of Helen that is helenbattphotography.com. I am basically interested in portrait photography. I saw three very interesting photographs one of a horse, the other one of an adolescent male, while the third one was of a kid. These three pictures touched me a lot. They forced me to think or rather speculate as to what are they trying to say are they actually trying to say something , or are they just puzzling symbols indicating nothing. Let me talk about the kid first .she is a girl of about three or four years of age walking lonely through the grasslands. More over us cannot see her face. So we do not have any idea about her expression and her state of mind. Next comes the horse, which stands alone in the woods .It has probably lost its way and is looking here and there, trying to find his master. The facial expression of the horse indicates that most probably it was not aware that it was about to get into trouble .the last picture shows a young man smiling sarcastically. It’s not only sarcasm, there is something additional. That is a "threatening look" as if he wants to give an idea about the negative consequences through his expression.
I personally asked Helen who is also popularly known as Photographer Ashford about these photos. Regarding the girl's (Betty) photo she said few interesting things. The day when Helen went to her residence was a gloomy day .Her mother Mrs. Brett called Helen, because she wanted a series of family photographs? The girl in the picture has a younger brother and an elder sister. While Mrs. Brett was calling all her sibling to assemble so that Helen can take their pictures, everybody assembled within half a minute .But where is Betty? Oh! The same old habit said Mrs. Brett; she was roaming around in the lawn, in the scrublands, muttering something, speaking to herself. Mrs. Brett was about to bring her back from the woods rudely, when Helen interrupted, she told Mrs. Brett that she will take her pictures naturally .she should not be forced to assemble for a photo session which may be the silliest thing for her .Helen took her photo from her back side .That very moment she knew that she was separating her form the rest of the family members at least psychologically. Later she came to know from Mrs. Brett that the child suffered from a condition which in layman’s term meant absent mindedness. The little girl was not only absent minded but she also suffered from a condition which forced her to confine herself in a shell, in her own world. She indeed needed a psychiatric treatment. The next portrait was of the horse, which I am going to talk about. When I asked Helen about the horse she told me that .It happened accidentally, Helen and few of her friends were roaming in the nearby woods on a Sunday. They saw a horse frantically running here and there as if it has loosed its way. She immediately took a photograph. Lastly it was the photo of the young boy with a sarcastic look. I asked whether the chap was very indecent .she said no the young man was pretty descent. However there was something which was not expected from him at that age. The boy used to leave alone and was pursuing his masters in criminal psychology. He gave Helen a call so that she can produce a good portrait after all she was famous as portrait photographer Ashford .When she was about to click, just before that the boy started smiling .Gradually it turned into a sarcastic smile. May be it was quite natural for the boy to smile in that fashion .May be we are thinking too much about the natural expression of the person. Still if you look at these photos they are bound to touch your intellect. No wonder Helen and I had the same choice regarding the portrait collection that she has. She told me that she liked these three pictures the most. May be because they are more appealing and eye catchy than the rest. Yet all the portrait photographs are quite attractive if observed carefully. Although Helen is specialized in wedding photography however she captures good portraits .In fact, she has an unique knack towards photography in general.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)