I have renamed my series of portraits of my local Rotary club members, Rotarians (after Hill & Adamson). This is more specific and avoids unwanted connotations such as football, nightclubs, golf and so on. I have completed 11 portraits….11 is an odd number (both literally and in terms of a project like this)….I think 12 might have been better. But I have reached a logical break point in my work.
I am away for a week and by the time I get back and am able to fix up some more portrait sittings my chemicals for development will need changing. I had hoped to do this at a time when I know I will have a lot of processing (to get a lot of usage from it during its limited shelf life). I have some ‘one shot’ chemicals so that I can continue to develop in the meantime but this is not so fine grained and not really suitable for these portraits. I also have a deadline to meet for my final assignment and I have much to do…not least to write up this project, the 45 seconds… project and my reflective account!!!
These are the portraits I have made so far. I think in time I will do a few more. We have some Asian members and I would like them to be represented. We might also have a few more women members soon. I was also thinking of inviting our Rotary District Governor to participate. She is a woman and lives locally. So I will do some more work on this in time for my assessment submission….just not now.
Rotarians (after Hill & Adamson)
photo-graph 
jsumb
February 2, 2013
The ‘book’ has started to have a ‘value’; in that when it is in shot ‘it’ is touched as if in reverence (with the exception of the chap leaning on it), so that when it is absent it’s ‘loss’ in the frame seems to be felt more. And as a series the variance on the pose, for me, is noticeable. Though the uniformity of frame and use of space within the frame helps to militate against the pose differentials.
Keith Greenough
February 2, 2013
In fact the variation of the poses is quite deliberate and is based on the differing poses from a series of portraits made in the mid-1800s by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson. In those days the books were an essential prop indicating that the subject was a learned person. They were also essential as a means of allowing the subject to rest their elbows and hands comfortably so that they could assume a braced pose and keep still for the long exposure needed for the Calotype process. It is becoming very interesting looking at these portraits now as I can see that questions about the relevance of the book and when looking in series the absence of the book have been raised by more than one viewer….
vickiuvc
February 3, 2013
Finding comments made by you and John and the absence/presence of the book interesting
Catherine
February 2, 2013
I’m almost sad that the series is nearly at an end because it has been so instructive for me to follow your process. I hadn’t even thought about ‘the book’! They are all excellently conceived – Nos 10 and 11 have a special appeal to me.
On what basis did you choose which pose for which person – you probably explained right at the beginning but I can’t remember.
Keith Greenough
February 2, 2013
There was no logical basis for the selection…except that I chose photographs of men for the male subjects and for my single lady I chose a Hill and Adamson portrait of a woman – Mrs Isabella Morrison Adamson see here:
http://www.geh.org/fm/hill/htmlsrc/m197705020001_ful.html#topofimage
I eliminated some poses from the H&A work as they were very theatrical. To begin with I discussed the possible poses with my subjects and we agreed on the one which they felt comfortable with. Towards the end there were fewer possibilities remaining so I suggested the poses I needed to my subjects and provided they were happy we went ahead.
Many indeed most of the H&A portraits have the subject looking away, averting their gaze or looking into the distance. This was necessary as they did not want the eyes to show the effect of blinking during the long exposure. It was probably also based on precedents from portrait painting. In the days of D&H when photography was in its infancy people did not really know how to pose for a photograph. I believe that this is one of the reasons why Walter Benjamin felt that photographic portraits from this time were ‘expressively coherent’.
I wanted my subjects to look into the camera. This knowingly subverted the original signalling that my photographs are contemporary images although the caption suggests they are modelled on the past. In a way I felt that the frontal gaze of my present day subjects reflects our contemporary familiarity with visual culture… a change from the past as it were.
vickiuvc
February 3, 2013
Keith—my favourite is the image of the woman. Trying to work through my reasoning—and can throw out the fact that she is the only woman; and the fact that I am female. It’s the pose—the positioning of the hands—they create a circular movement for me which makes the image far more dynamic—I’m seeing Pisces, water, continuum of life, circles and all sorts of other things that make it stand out for me. Maybe it’s the effect of too much coffee this morning? Dunno!
Keith Greenough
February 3, 2013
Its my favourite too for the same reasons….also like Chorus the black African guy from Zimbabwe….funnily enough the lady Gwen is also from South Africa