Adopting and modifying the black and white portrait- Nadar to Avedon

The godfather's of black and white portraiture. 

With a mixture of stark and contrasting tones both Nadar and Avedon naturally personify their subject matter with an almost haunting yet realistic representation of an emotion. The beauty and grotesque are carefully exposed to the world without exemplifying the subject in a negative way. 

It has been said that both Avedon and Nadar appear to have the ability to capture and see a glimpse of ones soul...however, as argued by Bailey within the documentary "The man who shot the sixties" it is not the soul that is captured by these two photographers, but instead it is as if both Avedon and Nadar carefully study their subjects, noticing qualities and notions about the character which are often missed or disregarded. 

Within the studio I decided to focus on creating a powerful black and white style of lighting with similar yet alternative qualities to those of Nadar and Avedon. Using a beauty dish raised slightly to the left of the model, I was able to have full control of the shadows which had flooded Zoe's face. The principle of the prop light giving me pin point accuracy with regards to how I wanted the shadow to flow. Shot using Ilford Xp2 with a slightly slower shutter and a rear flash (the slow shutter allows light to appear more intense when the rear flash is triggered), I decided to use the wind machine to exemplify the ever so slight movement of Zoe. 

I am impressed with the results, however I do believe a slower shutter alongside a further exploration and representation of emotion will immediately allow my photographs to appear far more powerful. 

 Dodging and burning of the eyes further allows the portraits to achieve this notion of 'power' wiithin a portrait. In future reference I will refrain from featuring other aspects of the human body such as arms etc...