The importance of faces in portraits. Portraiture Task

The importance of faces in portraits

“Art historian E.H Gombrich calls attention to the importance of faces, some times hidden, to human vision, reminding us of its importance to our survival and that it is unborn and not learned. Faces Fascinate us from birth with a ‘language that is simple and direct’. The face is made up of many muscles, and is capable of hundreds of different facial expressions.”

Within my Portraits faces and facial expression will play an important role, faces and expressions have the power to express feelings and emotions through a image and one simple change in a facial expression can completely change the outcome of the image.

“We learn to read the information expressed in a human face long before we learn verbal language. The language of the face is a visual language that we learn in infancy”

This information has informed me to think closely about facial expression within my portraits and how it can have a big affect my image

Visual

Here are two images that i find demonstrate really well the power of emotion and facial expression within a portrait.

Richard Avedon
Taken from
In The American West

















Bibliography

Richard, Z (2007) ‘Subliminals’  in: Perception and Imaging. Focal Press; Third Edition

Richard, A In The American West 

http://www.richardavedon.com/index.php#mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=0&p=7&a=0&at=0