Photographer Research - Chuck Close

Chuck Close

Biography:

Charles Thomas "Chuck" Close (born July 5, 1940) is an American painter and photographer who achieved fame as a photorealist, through his massive-scale portraits. Chuck was diagnosed with prosopagnosia- Sometimes known as “face blindness”, prosopagnosia is a disorder where the ability to recognize faces is impaired. In 1988 a catastrophic spinal artery collapse left him severely paralysed. Close often takes his family and friends as models, making monumental and classical works that are both bold in their simplicity as well as intangible. In Close’s daguerreotype photographs, the background defines the limit of the image plane as well as the outline of the subject, with the inky pitch-black setting off the light, reflective quality of the subject’s face.

Why I chose this photographer:

Chuck's photography is very interesting to me as he focusses on portraiture in black and white. This is very effective in showing the detail in the face of the subject along side with the formal elements of line, form and shape. The absence of colour in his photography is very intriguing to me as I feel that it is very effective in creating a particular mood. The subjects in the photographs tend to appear very serious and emotionless, enhanced by the black and white effect. Also I like his technique of blurring the whole image apart from the face of the subject, which is perhaps related to his visual impairment. The edges of the model's head is blurred which enhances the detail of the eyes, nose, mouth and in some cases hair.

In this portrait a very intense mood is created due to several factors in which Chuck has included. Firstly, the eye contact and facial expression is considerably intense as she looks very tense and straight. Due to the fact that the blurring technique is introduced, the femininity of the subject is enhanced as she looks quite soft through her hair being blurred and the only thing in focus being her face. Despite the fact that there is unflattering light and  considerably dark shadows the blurring still allows her to look beautiful. There is quite a lot of contrast with the tones visible which show the form of the subject due to the slight highlights around the cheeks and nose.

In this photograph, a black background is used alike all of his work in order to allow the subject to stand out. The blurring technique of where the only area in focus in the frame is the centre of the subject's face is used. This enhances the eye contact and connection made with the audience. There making the face the focal and illustrating the importance of the facial expression when unsung this technique in order to convey a particular emotion or mood. This photograph seems rather soft and natural due to the minimal contrast on the subjects face. There are blurred light lines which illustrate the man's hair and the reflection of light which appears to be coming from in front of the subject. The formal element of line can be seen through the hairs in the eyebrows and beard where different tones can be seen. Chuck also uses the technique of shadowing everything other than the face and a part of the neck in order to make the subject stand out further.

Unlike a lot of the Chucks photography this piece appears much lighter than usual through the introduction of white clothing. Chuck normally uses dark clothing which blurs in with the dark background. Here the the white shirt works very well in contributing to the lighter tones seen. Once again the blurring technique enhances the femininity and beauty of female subject. Also the subject is smiling which adds to the overall softness of the piece in relation to the soft light colours with minimal shadows. The black background also allows the subjective to stand out much more. There are slightly darker tones which work well when showing the form and structure of the subjects face. There is a fair bout of contrast in the hair of the subject with main highlights and shadows in order to illustrate the smooth texture through the use of blurring.

This is a self portrait of Chuck Close  where once again his blurring technique is used very well in enhancing the eye contact made with the audience. This is because the only areas in focus are the eyes, nose and mouth of the subject. Due to the very serious facial expression used, a intense mood is created which is very compelling and intriguing as the subject seems emotionless. The formal element of line is very dominant in this photograph through the wrinkles around the forehead which are highlight areas. In contrast to this, dark black lines can be seen to show the outlines of the glasses. The top part of Chuck's beard is in focus and contains both light and dark short lines which present the rough texture of his beard. Once again, it becomes apparent that when photographing male models, chuck shadows out the top half of their body such as their shoulder. This only allows for the subjects head and neck to be seen.

How he has influenced me:

Chuck has influence me to experiment with different blurring techniques, especially his blurring technique. In doing so I have established ways in which to make the focal point of the piece to be the face and therefore allowing the facial expression to be the main contributor to the mood. I have experimented with his blurring technique in order to to enhance the beauty and femininity as he does, shown through the images included below.

Summary:

Overall, I feel that Chuck's blurring technique is very effective in allowing the focal point to be the face of the subject and also is very effective in creating several moods. These include very intense photographs due to the eye contact and black and white filter and also he enhances the femininity of women.