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James D: Bravo! I say "Bravo!", Sir! You got it. Hit the old nail right on the head, you did.

I've said before that anyone can take a picture of Aunt Harriet which, if shown to someone who knows her, will elicit the comment "That's Aunt Harriet." Piece of cake. Done every day by millions of people with cameras, including an unfortunate number of portraitists.

It is an entirely different thing to take a picture of Aunt Harriet which, if shown to someone who does not know her, will result in "That portrait tells me something about the character of Aunt Harriet."

Check the portrait of the jurist in 'The Family of Man' as a prime example.
 
Well the obvious next step is, "What elevates the snap shot at the zoo to a portrait suitable for that empty spot in the dining room." Be serious what snapshot would you put in a formal dining room.

In my dining room there is a portrait of my daughter. in her wedding gown.... I didn't do it by the way. It's pretty awful, in my opnion, but if I were to move it. I'd have to sleep with a gun and dog for protection. There are hundreds of snapshots done by me and others that are much better "views" into her soul. They didn't make it so formal a place.

There is also a huge portrait of her, that I did do, hanging on the living room wall. That portrait does just as you guys say. It could hang on anyones wall, it is that kind of picture. But that is less a portrait than a statement and was made to be such. A teenaged girl with her flute in a black background, spotlighted with a music stand. Just your typical teenaged orchastra picture, but it has class. I think so anyway. but I have a bias toward the subject, as well as the artist.
 
I think some of it has to do with expectations. "This is her wedding picture, and by God, it's going to hang in the dining room, whether it's good or not!"

I think that a portrait, at least of an "ordinary" person, is a special case. It has meaning to some people, but virtually none, other than "Hey, that's a good picture of an attractive guy/girl," to strangers. It's meant to record that person, rather than a thought, emotion, concept, or idea. When that person becomes famous, the portrait gains value, but not necessarily because it's "Art." More because of the subject.

Here's a question: the images captured by photojournalists, the ones that really tug at our emotions.. are they "art" or are they "record shots"? A great number of them make profound and often timeless statements about the human condition.

For instance: the classic National Geographic cover, the girl with the blue eyes (or were they green?) in Afghanistan back in the '80s. Or war photography... Or photojournalistic expeditions to starving and disease-ridden third-world countries... Are these art? Commercial art? High art? Low art? Well-composed snapshots? Simple illustrations?
 
Then there is the *accidental* elevation. ;)

Take the family portraits of yesteryear....and I mean, circa 1920's or just before. Those images were taken in a business environment, with the best studio equipment of the day.

But when you look at them now.....something more comes through. I can look at anyone's old family shots and be moved. Those faces, those clothes...those times.

Given what Torus was saying: It is an entirely different thing to take a picture of Aunt Harriet which, if shown to someone who does not know her, will result in "That portrait tells me something about the character of Aunt Harriet." these images were only taken to show Aunt Harriet.

I find it intriguing how only the passage of time somehow elevates these images to showing more, into something that can evoke an emotional response.
 
Ah, good point. But the image does now show something about the character of aunt Harriet, and even the human condition. It shows the state of the art. It shows the fashions of the time. It shows that beloved aunt Harriet is an antique herself, and shows her as we've probably never known her: young and not knowing what her life will contain in the future. It shows that she comes from an era we've never experienced, and can probable never fully understand.
 

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