Like many sheep, I used to think that a good portrait is one that "Captures the essence of a person, that tells me everything about a person's personality".
I am by no means old and wise. But I have passed the half century mark. I have worked for more than a quarter century in a profession that often deals with the deep recesses of a person psyche. Not as much as a psychologist or psychiatrist, but close. And maybe more sometimes.
And my conclusion? I feel totally inadequate and a failure. I wish that I can say that I "know" a person, having spent hours and days with that person. But I don't. Heck! I don't even know for sure who I am! I have certain behaviour patterns. My friends and associates think that I am sanguine! I am often the one who gives and encourages laughter. Am I sanguine? Deep inside me, I am a melancholic. A schizophrenic? May be!
If I don't know myself or the person whom I spent hours and days trying to understand the "person", how can it be possible that I can "capture" the "total personality and essence" of a person?
I don't know where this comes from. But I believe it to be a great myth, started by someone to give himself a sense of "power" that he could "capture" (How horrible a word - load, aim, shoot, capture - words like using a weapon!) the "person". And this myth perpetuated by the hordes of unthinking sheep, or whom I am one.
But increasing, I think photography is telling a story. Hence, the often asked question at print critiques "WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY?" - about the landscape, the bee, the flower, the hawker, the sunset, and the person. Which brings me back to "what is a good portrait?"
I think portrait making is "Telling a story about the person". Making a biography about the person, and in the process, revealing a little about yourself. Now that gies me a tremendous sense of relie! I am free! When I make a portrait of a person whom I meet 10 minutes ago, do I know that person? When I join a photo-shoot and meet the model the first time with 7 other photographers, is it possible that within the next hours, I can get to know the model? You can? Really? I can't? But does it deter me from making a portrait of the person?
NO! Because I am making a story of the person as seen through my eyes and hopefully as I mature in photo-making, through my heart,or my "third eye". I am free! I don't have to know the person. I don't have to capture his essence. I don't have to capture his personality. I just make a story and biography of the person. My story.
How about the landscape? The sunset? Do I capture the sunset? No. I make a story about the sunset. What did I feel about that sunset? Beautiful? Nice colors? or more? How deep am I? Perhaps if I am deeper, the sunset reminds me of the cosmos. The clouds the whirl of the milky way, a microcosm of the universe. The sunset becomes a template for me to make a story.
This is how I see portraits. The person is only a template. A template for me to make a story. If the template is "good", I have more to work on. If I have something within me, something deeper, I can make more of the template. A dance. Working together. The camera, with its own reality, my instrument to make that story.
My portrait. Is it a good portrait? I do not know. But it is my story of that person.