Environmental Portraiture

A portrait executed in the subject's usual environment

An environmental portrait is a portrait executed in the subject's usual environment, such as in their home or workplace, and typically illuminates the subject's life and surroundings. The term is most frequently used of a genre of photography.By photographing a person in their natural surroundings, it is thought that you will be able to better illuminate their character, and therefore portray the essence of their personality, rather than merely a likeness of their physical features. It is also thought that by photographing a person in their natural surroundings, the subject will be more at ease, and so be more conducive to expressing themselves, as opposed to in a studio, which can be a rather intimidating and artificial experience.

Key Practicioners - Michelle Sank

Born in Cape Town, South Africa. She left there in 1978 and has been living in England since 1987. Her images reflect a preoccupation with the human condition and to this end can be viewed as social documentary. Her work encompasses issues around social and cultural diversity.

Key Practitioners – Jane Brown Jane Bown is a British photographerwho has worked for The Observer newspaper since 1949. Her portraits of famous people have received critical acclaim. She has photographed hundreds of subjects, including Orson Welles, Samuel Beckett, Sir John Betjeman, Woody Allen, Cilla Black, Quentin Crisp, P. J. Harvey, John Lennon, Truman Capote, John Peel, Richard Nixon, the gangster Charlie Richardson, Field Marshal Sir Gerald Templer, Jarvis Cocker, Björk, Jayne Mansfield, Diana Dors, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eve Arnold, Evelyn Waugh, Brassai and Margaret Thatcher. She took Queen Elizabeth II's eightieth birthday portrait.

Technical Equipment

Jane Bown - works primarily in black-and-white, using available light, and a forty year old film camera.

This is a photograph by Bill Brown in 1945. The subject looks very relaxed in his environment, we can tell this by his position. He is sat next to a radio, which informs us that he enjoys spending time listening to his radio. His expression is vacant. We can tell that this is an old fashioned photograph by the curtains and the radio as they are both very outdated.

Contemporary image analysis

This photograph is taken by Michelle Sank, it is a young mother and her baby, she is trying to convey how the mother feels like a child herself. This photograph is contemporary and we can tell this because of the furniture. The subjects are in their own environment which appears to be very casual and the photograph shows a snap shot of their everyday life.

Many of Jane Bown’s photographs were published in to her book ‘Faces’ a book which not only has many many pages of faces but it also explains 'the creative process behind great portraits’ that she takes.