The Art Within Portrait Photography: A Master Photographer's Revealing and Enlightening Look at Portraiture. Klaus Bohn
Finding her Softer Side
Revealing the art within portrait photography allows us to create a greater awareness of ourselves and our surroundings. We often see photos of our families, loved ones, our treasured children, pets and so on but do we really see the emotions, feelings and art contained within these images? Many of us feel this overwhelming need to satisfy this craving to be the best we can be to our family and the families of the world. Likewise my approach has always been to fulfill this craving and be driven to explore the art and creativity that exists in portraiture as well as other forms of photography.
I have always been impressed with the talent of Gene Hattori and his great photography studio F:11 Photographic Design in Saskatoon. In many ways I looked up to him as one of my mentors. Gene ran a television commercial that included the words, “Who signs your portraits?” I was so impressed that a few years later I ran a similar ad on TV. There were images fading into one another with only music in the background until the very end when I spoke those same words, “Who signs your portraits?”
A valuable lesson was learned when I photographed a family who lived about an hour’s drive from my studio. They made separate trips for their consultation, photographic session, projection and finally to pick up their wall portraits. Two hours after they left with their portraits I received a phone call from this client informing me that I had forgotten to sign their photographs! She said, “I will drive back tomorrow so that you can sign them.” When counting each trip both ways that amounted to ten hours of travel. It was then that I realized in a profound way the value of a signature. How I treasured this family and was fortunate to photograph them many times over the years.
Another early impression on my career was made at a photographer’s convention in Saskatchewan where Ken Whitmire was the main speaker. At that time I didn’t know anything about