This is a photograph by Thomas Ruff, he has a series dedicated to deadpan portraiture, this is an early example of his work and it is a lot rougher than his later work. The lighting is slightly more darker and the facial features are casting a shadow on his face, for example his eyebrow bone is casting a shadow over his eye. This gives a slightly more negative connotation. In his later portraits, the lighting is hitting the subjects face on and there is much less shadow, like a passport photograph. If the lighting was hitting the subject of this image face on, he would look a lot happier, his eyes look angry.
The colours used in the photograph also affect the mood, the background is completely plain so that has neither negative or positive connotations. Although the clothing he is wearing is a quite bright yellow, yellow is a very happy colour that is linked to summer, so it gives us the impression that he is quite a positive person. Thomas Ruff's photography uses quite muted colours, it is not very saturated and the colours seem quite dull, even the bright yellow is muted to quite a dull point. The models skin is almost completely white, however this may just be his complexion.
The photograph was taken in a portrait orientation, it is very similar to a passport photograph, however rather than the image being printed out small, Thomas Ruff printed his images out at about 210cm x 165cm for studios, this means that they are in incredibly high detail, the audience can focus on specific parts of the image rather than the image overall. Although if they stand back they can also enjoy the image overall.
Thomas Ruff took his images in deadpan so that the viewer could project their own thoughts and feelings onto the viewer, he believed that if you let the camera do the job it does best, it will tell you nothing at all. This means that you don't know anything about the subject, they could be absolutely anyone, furthermore, due to the dullness of his photographs, the subjects are very forgettable.
This is my photograph, I think it is similar to the image that Thomas Ruff photographed. The lighting is similar because it shines onto the face in such a way that it is almost all light, whilst there being a few parts of the face that are slightly obscured by the lighting, for example the left eye has some shadowing, as well as the left side of the nose
The colouring in mine is very neutral, the background is completely plain white, while the clothes the model's wearing are black so this could have a slightly negative connotation, however I just see it as a contrast between the dark and the light. Ruff's contrast in a different way where it is the happy yellow shirt contrasting with the negative lighting on the subjects face.
My image was taken in a landscape orientation, I decided to do this because I wanted to show the entire upper body, not just the head like Ruff's images, personally I think that this looks better as there isn't as much cut off, its not as close up as the image by Ruff.
This image was taken in deadpan and I definitely think that this looks good, the model is showing absolutely no emotion which is good because although it looks simple, a lot of the subjects found it slightly difficult as it's hard to show absolutely no emotion. However this model managed to do it really well and it is very difficult to read how he feels.
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