By
Dr. S. Playfair
Dr.
Sacha Playfair from Cambridge is well known in the East Anglian
Federation and in the R.P.S. He has written a series of articles
under the above title, of which the one printed below is the first.
Our thanks go to Dr. Fairplay and to Mike Neville, Editor of the
E.A.P. `Bulletin` for permission to reproduce the series - Ed.
Yes,
I too have bees in my bonnet, and it is full of photographic
bees.The particular bee which will buzz this time is the belief that
eyes need not, indeed often should not, dominate in portraits.
"Ah",
say the orthodox, "the eye is the mirror of the soul".
Well, it is nothing of the sort. It shows extremely little, if
anything about the owner. It is a technical bit of anatomy designed
to receive images. It is, in this context, insert, neutral. But
then, what part of the face registers character? Our faces are
patterned by the muscles underlying the skin. They shape the cheeks,
they move the brow, they pull on the lips.
Have
you ever had an argument, a heated discussion, with your girl
friend? No? Really? Well then, say with the Inspector of Taxes., or
a Traffic Warden? What area of his/her face were you watching? Not
the eyes, but the mouth, i`ll be bound: a grinning or sneering
mouth, a tight set of lips, a sort of snarl, or with luck, the
gentle upward pull of lip corners to smile. Perhaps unfortunately,
downwards to grieve. Muscles which compress the cheeks against the
teeth can give a look of disdain. Others show irony by raising the
upper lip and averting it while widening the nostrils. And so on ...
and so on.
From
our earliest age faces have been undergoing acrobatics corresponding
to emotions. Eventually, as we grow into maturity, the physiognomy
settles, from pure practice, into expressions of self-satisfaction,
sorrow, good humour, scepticism, contentment or gloom, or of
whatever is in your nature. Character shows.
In
the meantime, the eyes have not altered. To be sure, the muscles
around them working brow and eyelids have been in action. And of
course there are muscles which turn the eyeball up and down, or
sideways. Half closed or open eyes and side glances are expressive
in their way, but they show only a momentary mode. Within this, the
eyeball does not change at all.
Yet
photographic pundits are all insisting that we should concentrate on
the eyes to achieve "pin sharp" pupils and to put in the
"catchlights" - sheer technical artifices. I never focus
ont he eyes; I focus on the mouth region as being the most
important, the most informative, part of the face. It is a little
forward of the yes, and that may mean
losing
the "pin sharpness" of the pupils. It means also catching
the personality of the sitter.
Think
this out, try this out. Thoughtfully watch the faces of your fellow
humans and you will be convinced. Then aim
photographically for the mouth; your portraits will become more
truthful.
A.P.S.,
AND ALL THAT!
By
Dr. Sacha Playfair
I
agree with Peter Guy (CRCN No.81) about digital imaging. My main
anxiety here is a little scene in the future when the great
grandchildren discover my beloved Leica lurking lost in some attic.
"Hey
- look at this! Whatever it is?"
"That was great grandpa`s Camera.
Weird old fashioned thingummy isn`t it?
"Yeah. Looks like a load of rubbish".
"I know; let`s bung it into the next charity jumble sale".
And
then there is the commercial threat of A.P.S. "Advanced"?
More like "retrograde". A big attempt to create sales of a
new
line of apparatus which gives smaller negatives and thereby grainier
prints.
The
claim is made that an improved emulsion is incorporated in the A.P.S.
films. If so, why the-something-or-other don`t the
manufacturers put that better quality emulsion on the current size
films ?