Contemporary Portrait

'Find a contemporary portrait that suggests wealth'

When I though of wealth I thought straight away of power and celebrities. Nowadays if you have money, you have this power of being wealthy just like if you are celebrity you have power so both of these go hand in hand. I thought of all the wealthy celebrities and I came across one person who I thought would fit perfect for someone who suggests wealth.

Karl Lagerfield is a fashion icon. He is most famously known for being the creative director of Chanel. When googling images of him, this one was my favourite. He doesn't have to do anything to look very powerful, he just stands against a black/grey ish background wearing a pair of sunglasses and a suit and it just looks very powerful. The lighting really gives that hint of wealth and power, the way only the back and side of his face is lit up directly points your eyes to this point and you can also notice that there is another smaller light in the same position on the photo of himself he is holding as this also attracts your eyes straight away. That is probably the biggest powerful looking part of the image, the photo of himself that he is holding, it's almost like he thinks so highly and powerful of himself that the one object he chose to surround himself with and to show his viewers was himself. This is an example that people these days do still have status symbols in portraits and photographs. Also I think black and white photos are the most powerful as this focuses your eyes on what needs to be looked at rather than getting distracted by a lot of colour as well as the detail. It also looks really good how contrasted it is as his hair and face and collar are very white and his suit and glasses are the complete opposite and all of these are mixed together against a grey background.

Some more examples of symbolic objects these days are;

Jewellery, Brands (such as Prada, Dior, Chanel), Items of clothing, food, holidays such as halloween, christmas and easter.

'The symbols with which someone chooses to be pictured and the setting within which someone's portrait is placed can tell us much about that person's character and aspirations, how they like to be seen, and/or the time in which they lived.'

This quote was on our tutor's presentation slideshow and I really like it, I think it really does show the person that you are by what you choose to surround yourself with. For example the objects that Karl Lagerfield has been placed with make him look very powerful and wealthy, when we first set our eyes on the image, our mind is screaming them words out. When you look at a completely different photo of someone surrounding themselves with different items that may not make them look wealthy or powerful we think of them by the objects we see. The items we see around them completely tells what type of person they are.