The Definitive Portrait

Portrait of a leader

There are different kinds of portraits. The casual portrait, the kind people snap of friends and loved ones with their cameras or cell phones; the studio portrait, intended to show the subject at his or her best, perhaps with a bit of flattery; and the business portrait, designed to show the subject as friendly, accessible, and capable, the kind of person from whom you might want to buy insurance or a house.

There's also the corporate portrait, portraying strength and leadership; and the editorial portrait, giving insight into who the person is and what he or she does.

My favorite kind of portrait is what I term the definitive portrait. It's closely related to the editorial portrait, but goes deeper, showing not only what the person looks like, but also revealing something about his or her character.

The absolute master of the definitive portrait was the great Canadian photographer Karsh, whose books are a catalog of world leaders of his day in various fields. If you are of a certain age and the name of Hemingway or Churchill is mentioned, the picture that comes into your mind would almost certainly be a Karsh portrait.

I've done a number of portraits in my career that I believe are definitive, but the one I consider most successful is of a man who was the founder of a university and pastor for many years of a church that at one time was one of the largest in the world.

When I was asked to make his portrait, he was 78 years old and still active in the work to which he had given his life, although no longer involved in day-to-day affairs. My goal was to make a portrait which would reveal something of his character and be definitive of the later years of his life. In other words, I wanted to make the portrait by which he would be remembered.

I approached the assignment with a small degree of trepidation, because I knew I would only get one chance. He was not known as a man of great patience, nor did he suffer fools gladly. I set everything up in advance of the session in a large room near his office so that he would only need to walk in and take his seat. I chose floodlights rather than strobes, because I felt he would be more comfortable with steady light than constant flashes.

Two lights were placed behind his position at 45 degrees to each side. The third was in front, at a slight angle to my right. My camera, a Hasselblad 500CM with a 150mm f4 Sonnar lens, was loaded with Fujichrome RDP 100 transparency film, and two additional backs were also loaded and ready.

I greeted the subject as he entered the room, helped him take his seat on the posing bench, gave him a few words of instruction, and began to work. Neither of us spoke much. After exposing two rolls of film, I felt I had what I wanted. I thanked him, he left, and I began to pack up my equipment. Portrait encounters, for me at least, are often like that. Intense, but brief.

Did I capture something of his character? What do you think?

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(Photograph copyright David B. Jenkins 2020)

Soli Gloria Deo

To the glory of God alone