Ideas Project 5: Portraiture

For project 5, “Portraiture”, I was immediately captured by the artist August Sander.  I really liked the simplicity of his shots and also how he was trying to really show who the person he was photographing was through their occupation. What struck me was not only this simplicity of what he was photographing, but also how powerful his photos are.  The expressions and the way that people hold themselves in Sander’s photos make the photos really intense.  He is trying to capture the person in their element to really show who they are.

For this project I would like to follow a similar path to August Sanders.  Taking portraits of people to try to show who these people are and what makes them who they are.  I would like to show some of the different social circles and types of people that make up the Beloit College student body.  Photographing people in their rooms or stopping them and while they are doing what they love to do to ask for a portrait.  I want to experiment is shooting in black and white because this worked really well for Sanders to help make the photos more powerful.