Challenge: Portraits with Tattoos!

[Rene F Granaada]

From my tattoo series

This a photo I shot at a friend's tattoo parlor in Amsterdam after people got tattooed. The space I was given to photograph the subjects in was a tiny yellow room underneath the salon...Being forced to shoot so close to my subjects gave me the opportunity to experiment in depth with using wide angle lenses to shoot portraits and try find the right amount of dramatic effect, without creating caricatures. Instinctively i shot Stephan looking down at him to enhance his defensive posture into an aggressive facial expression...Before the shoot I had asked my subjects to close their eyes, and think about what their tattoos meant to them, and open their eyes, when they felt they really were in touch with that feeling.
In real life Stephan at the time of the shoot was a much sought after, very patient caregiver, i was told in an old people's nursing home in Amsterdam.

I would appreciate all your critique and suggestions.

 

[Asher Kelman]

I can see a reflection in his eyes. What's the lighting? I like the rich color. Could you also post an image say 500 pixels wide so we can see the whole gestalt of the composition without scrolling.

Asher

 

[Rene F Granaada]

I can see a reflection in his eyes. What's the lighting? I like the rich color. Could you also post an image say 500 pixels wide so we can see the whole gestalt of the composition without scrolling.

Asher

The lighting is a combination of diffuse light from a lightly clouded sky coming in through a wall high (8ft) window to the left of Stephan, and a Nikon flash unit placed very low above the floor in a corner through a white umbrella, if I remember correctly.

 

[Rene F Granaada]

I can see a reflection in his eyes. What's the lighting? I like the rich color. Could you also post an image say 500 pixels wide so we can see the whole gestalt of the composition without scrolling.

Asher

Asher, here a smaller version, so hopefully no scrolling needed.

RF

 

[Rene F Granaada]

A Brittish sailor came to Amsterdam to get tattoed

Another one from the same series

Rene-Frank

 

[Rene F Granaada]

Phoenix Reborn

When I shot this photo in 2001 he was working as a male nurse in Amsterdam's AMC hospital helping AIDS patients, and being a buddy...

Critique appreciated

 

[Asher Kelman]

René-Frank,

It's only the ear of the man that makes me think this is not an opening to another room we see but a mirror. He is so pale in the right and tanned in the reflection. However, the ears seem to match, match so maybe it's the same person. Was the mirrored image darker and you worked on it?

BTW, what did you mean by "being a buddy"? In the context, it's amusing!

Explain what's going on with his back on the lower right! Have you been pushing the pixels around there?

Asher

 

[Rene F Granaada]

Some observations

Asher, thanks for your comments. What is in the mirror has been manipulated slightly by me to suggest how I suspect my subject wants to see himself in the mirror, as a greater than life "hero" to his friends and patients , a "Phoenix" being reborn out of the ashes of relationships lost to HIV AIDS . Sharp, strong, literally, full of life and color, more than his stooped pose from the back and the flat expression on his face seems to suggest...
The rest of the image has been slightly desaturated of color to suggest, the paleness (through lack of sunshine, through the work he is doing, deep in the hospital's interior, helping the aids patients through the depressing last stages in their life. The tattoo artist told me prior to the shoot the man was a "buddy" (as far as i remember that is the official term used in those circles for people who give moral support to dying aids patients. So I think you may have misunderstood my use of the term here. I was there merely as a photographic observer, giving the "reality" observed my own interpretation by how i manipulated the image.

What you see underneath the tattoo of the Phoenix is actually his elbow, underneath the curve of his back. I did not add any lighting from the back, wanting the actual "real" part of the photo to look somber, as the Phoenix was not finished. The man was not "reborn" yet but still in the process of the transformation, while the tattoo was being applied.
On the table to the lower right some small objects were removed by cloning stamp and healing brush to remove clutter.

Rene-Frank

 

[Asher Kelman]

Asher, thanks for your comments. What is in the mirror has been manipulated slightly by me to suggest how I suspect my subject wants to see himself in the mirror, as a greater than life "hero" to his friends and patients , a "Phoenix" being reborn out of the ashes of relationships lost to HIV AIDS . Sharp, strong, literally, full of life and color, more than his stooped pose from the back and the flat expression on his face seems to suggest...
The rest of the image has been slightly desaturated of color to suggest, the paleness (through lack of sunshine, through the work he is doing, deep in the hospital's interior, helping the aids patients through the depressing last stages in their life. The tattoo artist told me prior to the shoot the man was a "buddy" (as far as i remember that is the official term used in those circles for people who give moral support to dying aids patients. So I think you may have misunderstood my use of the term here. I was there merely as a photographic observer, giving the "reality" observed my own interpretation by how i manipulated the image.

Then René, you did a magnificent job with the transformation but the lower right corner cold be better. Kudos.

Asher