Portraiture - Tony Vaccaro

Portraiture; Tony Vaccaro

Photographers want to show more than just a person posing for a picture mainly they're personality.

With painting portraiture there is some history however the sitter chooses what they want the picture to look like and how they want to be represented.

However with Photo Portraiture they Photographer can choose how they wanted their subject to be represented. As they own the photograph and with a painting, the sitter owns it.

A painted portrait can be manipulated, For instance there could be different sorts of objects, Like a dog to show loyalty. With pictures you cant manipulate them. It shows more history in an image and is more reliable.

Tony Vaccaro believes in taking pictures at the decisive moment.  Even through his war photography he has always tried to take his pictures at the right moment.

Vaccaro also realized that he was meant to put celebrates on a pedestal and show that they are number one, And try to show their greatness, However He wanted to show his opinion of the person he was taking the portrait of, Not their own opinion. Vaccaro takes a picture of the person on a pedestal but he says he took the picture of the subject on 'The right size' Pedestal.

He doesn't want to show them how they want to be shown as but what they're world is like.

He tried to sum up the subject in one word and determine there personality in one word, For instance if the celebrity was an Actress/Actor, How could he define that in his images? How can he show what they are like in one image.