Arthur Levi Rainville, M.Photog., CR. API, CPP

Three articles by Arthur
• The JOURNEY, Your Artistic Narrative • The Theory of YOU • The AURA of ROMANTIQUE

The JOURNEY, Your Artistic Narrative

You have a life.

You were born, you grew, and now you are at some stage along your journey… oh ya, we all know there is a period at the end of the sentence someday…but that’s another story for another day.

On your journey you have collected lots of stuff, mostly unintentional, in your head by well meaning folks like parents and teachers and even more stuff from the bombardment world you live in…. television, magazines, gossip…whatever.  And at some point you can really take charge of what you put in your mind vault – remember…what goes in is what comes out – in some form or another.

What you keep tidy in your little rucksack-of-the-mind; what you bring out and celebrate… to celebrate your life, to create in everything you do, and mostly, how you put it to good use…. this is your Artistic Narrative.

This Narrative can be nurtured.
This Narrative can be managed.
This Narrative can be your visible soul to the world.
AND
This Narrative is vital to your business future!

First, let’s set the stage.  You, yes you, have to be happy.  Of course we want you to be happy as a living breathing person in an every day world, but for what we speak of here, you so need to be happy as an artist if you are going to make this whole thing work … no angst art please. How you live your artistic life is critical to your success.  By now you might suspect I am alluding to nurturing your creative spirit, well of course. One thing is for certain… You cannot make yourself be creative, you have to let yourself.  Ya, you can’t force this one.  But fear not, don’t dismay, this play is for pay. In IE class we will explore a plethora of ideas to help you inspire playtime, what to do with your newfound Nirvana, and how to capitalize on your findings.

For now, what are these finding in reality?  Well, they will lead to your Visual Personal Signature Style – the ‘look’ you and your work will become known for, and that look will make all the difference.

Yes, your Visual Personal Signature Style, your look, can really equate to not only fun in the photographic process, but real business, real money…and in this day and age of do-it-yourselfers…..might just be the salvation, your real-time future.

How do you come by finding your own style, your own visual heartlight?  Well, there are many ways you can start the process of finding yourself, finding your way to creative alchemy.  To really polish your apple, you might need to spend some IE class time.  In the meantime, here are a few starting points:

1 – You gotta figure out You.
What do you like?  Black and White or Color and if Color, do you like bold or subtle color, opposite on the color wheel or tone on tone?  And what about space – tight crop or lots of negative space? Start with someone else’s work – quickly tear pages out of a magazine.  Any page that strikes your fancy – do it rapidly without out much thought – just photos that strike your fancy.  When you’re done, spread them out on the floor and step back.  Now look for similarities.  You will probably be surprised at the results.  For instance, you might not work much in black and white but for some reason picked many black and whites in the process.  Yes, it is definitely telling you something from deep down in your private creative throngs.  The more you start to answer yes or no, the more you are defining your likes and dislikes, the more you are starting to acknowledge your tastes.

2 – You need to take time to understand your Process.
Your Process is the hows and whys you make work the way you do.  Understanding here will allow you to focus on refining your techniques.  Process is always a big part of our IE talks.

3 – Play.  At some point you just need to play with yourself….and your new discoveries.  You can’t force it, you have to let it happen and that will only come from joyous play – you remember play – it’s what you use to do in the beginning when photography was new and fun. Now share our cool new images with others – get their feedback – and no, I don’t mean others photographers – friends, family….folks that are a lot like real clients.  These are the print scores that matter!

4 – Stick your neck out and try it on the real world…kinda play for pay.  This is where the refinement comes in; this is where we put a label on it for all the world to venerate.  This is where all the time and hard play work makes sense.

5 – Make Woopie.  Mix a little savvy marketing into your visual soup and now it’s time for the big payoff.  In our IE class we will work on marrying your style with Niche Marketing for a savvy new audience.

Time on your hands…..?  I would love to share a multitude of style ideas with you….my website is:  www.studiorainville.com

If you want to talk about all this stuff, find out a bit more about our IE class, email me at  rainfoto@aol.com. We’re going to have a most excellent adventure…..

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The Theory of YOU

As a portraitist, I do not have time, true time, to get to know you.   And time, fraught with telling questions, is oh so necessary to delve into the honest, behind the mask, psyche of who you truly are.   To all but a few close family and friends, each of us is a bit of a mystery to the rest of the world. 

This little matter of who you are has always been a bit of a dilemma for portraitists over time.  Well, perhaps not for all portraitists – those who were content to merely record the map of a face.  But for those of us who require more of ourselves this quandary of capturing your psyche has always been a challenge.  For me the task has always been telling through a little thing I like to call my Prime Directive.  This Directive takes form in the words of a definition of what is a portrait.

A Picture is of someone but a Portrait is about someone.
Now it is not everything about you but it must be at the very least something about you.  So for me, the most important element in my portrait is not lighting or posing or setting but genuine subject story line.  The success of your portrait can only be measured in the aesthetics of how well the image tells me, at least, something of your genuine self. 

So the quest for you, a visual you, is a veritable paradox.
It must display your facial features in a way that is visually pleasing or powerful but at the same time it must offer up a glimpse into your psyche, your soul.  Now this may seemingly be heavy, over processed of thought but for me it is the only formula for a portrait that can claim any merit from the hands of a professional artist. 

For years the answer to this frustration has eluded me.  I have moved from traditional, classical posed portraits to a more modern “snap shot” style photojournalistic look.  Each stage has had successes but at each turn I have often felt unfulfilled. I have tried to build into my photographic endeavors time, hours if necessary to sit and chitchat with my clients.  But even if I spend that precious time with you I am only sensing a millisecond of your life-force, of your essence, of your heartbeat. Perhaps now, in my sage stage, I have stumbled upon an answer. 
        
If I do not have the good fortune to have sufficient time to find out who you are through conversation, then I am only left with the opportunity to find out who you are through observation.  I can merely artistically interpret you, being you.
        
I know, I know, I am being vague but let me try to explain.

First: there is ME.  And I am all about my perceptions – perceptions based on all that has gone before this moment in my life.  All that has been put into my head by parents, teachers, friends and foes.  By television and by magazines and by looking at others work and by any and all forms of osmosis that has transformed my thoughts about everything.

Second: there is YOU.  And you are all full of stuff too but you have it covered over with your life mask.  You hide your true feelings with your expressions, your words, your actions.

At best all I can do is take a stab at reading between your lines - analyzing you being you by observing your body language.  Becoming a voyeur and interpreter of the infinite is perhaps a daunting task.  But in light of the shallow alternatives, it is often our best avenue to the real. 

There are so many methods of communication – thousands of bits of information pass between human beings within moments.  It is almost impossible to decipher the significant from the mundane.  Despite my best attempts at listening, I still often miss the mark when it comes to discovering the real you to photograph.  Recently I have begun to pay more attention to the way people hold their bodies.  There is personal substance in everyone’s posture that can serve as a powerful communication tool. Kinesics is the psychological study of the ways in which people use body movements, for example, shrugging, to communicate without speaking.  Shaking a head up and down for Yes and back and forth for No is Kinesics.  Arms folded can mean a level of non-acceptance.  Sitting back – bored.  But the more we observe people, the more we can begin to decipher a bit of what is hidden within.  Want to practice your powers of kinesics observation?  Spend a couple of hours hanging around your friendly neighborhood mall.  Watch shoppers pace, watch the body movements, watch how they stand while looking, buying, scurrying.  Pick just one and follow a bit – don’t get arrested stalking, just watch from afar.  Make mental notes.  Are you observing similar traits?  Start to form opinions of what individuals are like based on their motions.

Now it’s time to give your newfound prowess a test during a photographic session.  You can simply add your newfound powers of observation to your standard communication repertoire but you can also change completely how you conduct your session.  Sometimes the less said the better.  For example:

This portrait is an example of a Kinesics session designed exclusively to reveal a subject solely through my personal observations.  Remember, this is only my take based on my perception of her body language but in later discussions I think it was pretty accurate.
My formula for this Kinesics session is as follows:
        
1 – Choose appropriate music (actually allow the subject to choose from a variety of music – it will begin the process simply via their choice.)
        
2 – I then direct the subject to simply walk in a circle on the background, thinking thoughts that the music brings forth. 

3 – As in most of these sessions I have done, at some point the subject begins their own interpretation of the music and thus begins to reveal themselves to the camera.
        
4 – I utilize digital capture, and large, soft continuous light sources so that there is no flash to interrupt the thought process of the subject and no deep dark shadow areas that need my attention as the subject moves.
        
5 – Don’t count – take as many images as you sense a need for photographing and documenting each body movement and gesture.  I generally take overalls, mediums and close-ups depending on the moment.   Yes you are looking for facial expressions as always, but you are now also keying in on subtle changes in posturing.
        
6 – KEEP QUIET!  You do not pose! You do not direct!  You do not Talk!  You do nothing!  You are truly a voyeur of the moment.
        
7 – When it’s over – it’s over!  Reruns almost never yield anything more than a forced effort. 
        
8 – Breathe.  Think – about what you observed, what you captured and it’s relevance to the subject.
        
9 – Download and just look – and look – and look.
Really see beyond the pretty, beyond the mundane, beyond the technical.

10- Now, in my case, begins the process of “Acquisitions and Mergers.”  Blending the appropriate images together can seem overwhelming – what goes with what?  Which are irrelevant and which are noteworthy.  What I try to do at this stage is tell a story.  Snippets that reveal little personality traits.  Gestures, body parts, all have some deeper meaning than what we might first think. 

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The AURA of ROMANTIQUE

Romantique: a high ideal notion of sensual, adventuresome passion, of ‘true love.’

Aura: a distinctive sensation or visual disturbance that surrounds and may signal the beginning of a romantic episode.  A mood.
Mood:  a state of mind that someone experiences, thinks about, feels, at a particular time.

As Paulo Coelho, the noble Brazilian author of countless wonders, such as the Alchemist, writes; “…all any artist can convey is the idea of a feeling, not the feeling itself.”  He also shares with us… “You cannot judge the beauty of a path just by looking at the gate.” 
We must craft our imagery with imagination, private narrative and passion to convey something enchantedly personal about our subjects.

Ever since the dawn of time, man, well, mostly woman, has had the innate ability to send off signals, pick up vibes.  And that Aura, magical and oh so privately special, is every bit photographical if you are attuned. 
Feeling the mood is the first stage to creating more meaningful portraits.  The artist, then, merely needs to be a good translator of the feelings stirred. 
Our tools of translation for our pittura da posa (‘posed pictures’) are:

Atmosphere: The emotional tone implied and associated with a place or time – an expression of an impression – setting and subject in total melodramatic harmony.  It is our stagecraft of ornamentation and enchantment. Utilizing our WordSmithery helps here in our design to cosign feelings stirred. For example: “Wrapped in succulent damasks, dappled twilight tumbled across her body in a harlequin pattern like fallen petals from a Windemere English Rose.”
           
Artist James MacNeil Whistler’s words guided his hand in creating his muted, soft Nocturnes… “to paint like breath on a pane of glass.” 

Claire-0bscure  (Chiaroscuro): To bathe beauty in heavenly-light and earthly-shadows to achieve a high sense of drama. With the mindset of a theatrical cliffhanger, we engulf our subject in the last light of day, the first glimmer of firelight.  Light beams frolic, shadows cavort intrigue…the eternal dance of a bit naughty, a bit nice.

Language of the Body: Through the nonverbal body language of our subject – be it natural or pose-imposed. Obtuse body posing, angles of less than 90 degrees, yield more subtle language of a wistful heart. 

And of course the most magical frosting on our tea-cake, is always,
Countenance  (Expression).  Not to say that one cannot smile faintly during a cerebral affair of the heart, but more often a quiet demeanor, sitting in the still, telling moment type of expression offer the viewer of the portrait a gentle insight.

And the eyes…while mirrors of the soul in most portraits…in an Aura portrait, well there is hardly ever an eye to behold.  In portraits looking at the camera, the viewer of the photograph and the subject make a real connection.  But in a piece where the subject is looking away, down or closed of eyes…the viewer can only connect by interjecting his or her own personal feelings, experiences remembered.  This position of the voyeur embraces all that is mysterious, sensual, exciting and brings a connection to the portrait that embraces a sensual experience. 

That is why I have, for so long, created in the Aura of Romantique with all the intensity of an unrequited love. The mindset is not one of a hopeless romantic….as much as a hopeful one.

            “Some folks call me a hopeful romantic
                        A dreamer of improbable dreams.
            I guess maybe that I am a hopeful romantic
                        But surely there must be two,
            Dare I ask if that other romantic is… you.”
And all in all the recipe is simple: Try a little Tenderness. Add a dash of Alchemy. And season with the personal experiences, warm memories and private hopes and dreams that drive you every day of your life to…..Love.

"Mystery –it’s in the Shadows”

In the 1500’s Sr. Francis Bacon wrote:  “The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.”  Nowadays deepening the mystery should be a rallying cry for all professional photographers of this new digital age.

We face a time when our competitors are often our customers, some with digital equipment and computer savvy befitting professional status.  So what do we, as practicing pros, have to offer to separate ourselves from the masses?   I believe the answer lies in the age-old practice of Alchemy.

In the early years of photography – BC (before computers), photographers were akin to artistic gods – wielding camera and light with magical wonder.  Only a true professional would be capable of creating marvels from the blank canvas of film.  And then – the paradigm shift. With the advent of pixels came “lookin’ at the back of the camera” and much of the trepidation and intrigue was lost.  Most of us now live in the time of AD (adobe dependent) and technological astonishments abound. With effortless clicks of the proverbial button, images arise from inner space, turning into “not-to-shabby pretty pictures” with only a hope and a prayer.
        
So what Excalibur must we pull from the stone if we are to continue to sit on the throne of exalted professional photographer?  Well, if it cannot be physical or technical, then we have only our aesthetic virtue to extol. One of the purist and surest form of visual drama at our command is a command of the artistic.  Immersing ourselves in the land of Oz (wonder) and prancing through the forest of Art (creation itself) will be our ticket to satisfying a new world order.
        
For sake of this article, we will explore the often put aside, often misunderstood land of Shadows.  As photographers we have been taught and subsequently, reverently touted our domination of that greatest of visual creation tools – Light.  We carved with it, flattered with it, even offered a degree of spirituality with it.  And yes, where we place light is certainly our first foray into the design of our photograph.  But like all good yin and yang, there is another side, a side most often misused and abused –Shadow.  Much like her alter ego, Shadow is an essential building block to helping the viewer of the photograph understand spatial relationship, shape, roundness and depth.  Without Shadow, we view a false sense of reality.  Without Shadow, we never quite embrace the true value of Light.
        
Like any good usage of Light, how we utilize Shadow is key.  The credo is simple – we not only place Light but we also place Shadow.  Shadows can of course randomly fall – a falling out of our placement of Light.  But in the hands of a master Alchemist, the crafty placement of the Shadows will take our work to new heights of enchantment.
The Oeuvre of the Impressionist artists was simple: the painting lie not in the factual detail of a scene but in the Atmospherethat lay between the subject and the artist.  For us as photographers, this Atmosphere can be demonstrated through our use of Shadows.  With transparent Shadows we display details through subtle nuance.  But with opaque, bold Shadows, we offer Drama.  It is the Drama that creates intrigue. It is the Drama of Francis Bacon – it is the Mystery.  Yes it is most important to note – Bacon said Mystery – not Mastery!  A photograph of technical Mastery is little more than a bad Sci-Fi movie – effects for sake of effects.  But a photograph with Mystery will impart a sense of power, of deep intrinsic personal connection that can only be achieved through meticulously placed Shadows. 

And here I must impart a warning: Joining the ranks of the Alchemists and becoming a ShadowThrower is not a charge to be taken lightly.  Many a great image has been slain with poorly exercised use of the Shadow.  Ghastly Shadows can cause pain to even the simplest photography, suffering to a remorseful photographer and subject alike.  But in the hands of a true Artisan, the Shadow will conjure fame and fortune. 
There is no secrecy when it comes to creating Shadow.  It can be from powerful light sources to a mere hint – the flame of one candle can cause a shadow of compelling mood.  The quality of the light source will dictate the message.  A noontime sun will cause sharp, distinct Shadow lines, while the same light source on a cloudy day will display only a whisper of obscurity. The same visual dynamics can be recreated in the Studio with results resembling everything from the soft, peacefulness of an overcast window light via softboxes to the intrigue of deep, dark Film Noir days via a parabolic spotlight.
Well-placed Shadows can cause the eye of the beholder to be drawn to a specific spot in the image, such as the eyes, by nature of the leading lines offered up by the Shadows.  Shadows can be utilized as corrective tools, hiding unwanted blemishes and the like.  But the true value of the Shadows lies in the intrigue.   Poet Anne Sexton is credited with the line: “Tell almost the whole story.”  What is left is what conjecture is made of.  What is left is gone astray in the Shadows.

Armed with any light source, a competent ShadowThrower has but to move through the shadows, romp in the ambience -  join in the hunt for Atmosphere and Mystery..   Lost in the Shadows, we again reign as the gods of Art. 
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