Tuesday 11 February 2025
In this presentation, Lawrence Homewood shared his experience and expertise in portrait photography, offering insights, tips and tricks.
The talk began with a look at some of the work of great portrait photographers: David Bailey, Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz, Terry Richardson and Steve McCurrey.
First David Bailey, whose is best known for his close, tight crops, very contrasty monochrome images of the sixties. (Note: there is a section with David Bailey from Grayson Perry’s Art Club S2:E1, showing David Bailey at work available here).
Then we reviewed some of Richard Avedon’s work. Whilst still predominantly in black & white, there was less contrast and more playful. A much softer style.
We then moved to Annie Leibovitz, whose work is usually in colour and where she asks the subject to “be themselves”.
Terry Richardson was next and his work is in colour and utilises the punk aesthetic, which creates a rawer image.
Finally we finished with Steve McCurry, best known for the image “Afghan Girl”. It was clear that Steve McCurry’s work uses a limited colour range and often complimentary colours. The engagement with the sitter is through the eyes of the subject, which usually look straight into the camera.
We then critiqued three famous images and noted how they differ from Camera Club Competition images.
During the second half of the presentation Lawrence walked through some of his own work, from preparation (finding locations, discussing looks with models, waiver forms); taking the images; and then preparation of the images. This latter stage often taking Lawrence 5 – 6 hours.
An interesting talk and if you would like to see more of Lawrence’s work here is a link to his website: www.kitsch.co.uk